No correlation found between palpation and ultrasound for evaluation of effusion in the medial femorotibial and femoropatellar joint compartments of horses.

The research article presents a study which found no significant correlation between palpation and ultrasound scores for assessing joint effusion in the medial femorotibial and femoropatellar joint compartments of horses.

Study Methodology

• The study involved the analysis of 40 horses, amounting to 80 stifles, over a 12-week period. The horses were all over 1 year old and had no history of stifle disease.
• The researchers palpated the right and left medial femorotibial and femoropatellar joint compartments of each horse.
• A board-certified large animal surgeon, a third-year large animal surgery resident, and an intern specializing in equine sports medicine independently scored the level of effusion.
• The same joints were subsequently assessed using ultrasound by a board-certified equine sports medicine and rehabilitation clinician.
• The effusion as detected by palpation and ultrasound was categorized into three grades: none-mild (1), moderate (2), or severe (3).

Analysis and Results

• A 2-way intraclass correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the interrater reliability of the palpation scores.
• The Spearman rank correlation was used to ascertain the relationship between the palpation and ultrasound scores.
• The study found that the interrater reliability for palpation of effusion was rather poor among all observers and across all joint compartments.
• No significant correlation was found between the palpation and ultrasound scores for any observer and for any joint compartment.

Conclusions

• Despite palpation of joint effusion being a common indication of stifle pathology, this study unveiled poor interrater reliability for palpation scores, manifesting low agreement among clinicians in the same group.
• The research found no significant correlation between palpation and ultrasound scores for examining joint effusion, implying that clinicians should not rely solely on palpation to grade joint effusion in the medial femorotibial and femoropatellar joints of horses.