Soft tissue- and bone-phase scintigraphy for diagnosis of navicular disease in horses.

This study evaluates the use of radiography and scintigraphy (both soft tissue and bone phases) in diagnosing navicular disease in horses. It found that these methods are most effective when used in conjunction, and that scintigraphy can be particularly helpful when radiography results are inconclusive.

Research Participants

The researchers involved in this study used a range of horses for the investigation:

• Fourteen horses were clinically normal and served as the control group.
• The remaining 35 horses had a certain level of diagnosed navicular disease – from definite to probable or possible.

Methods and Findings

The researchers performed radiography and scintigraphy on all horses:

• They found that radiography and scintigraphy had a very similar specificity in revealing signs of navicular disease. In other words, both methods were almost equally accurate in identifying true positive cases of the disease.
• However, scintigraphy appeared to have greater sensitivity than radiography. This means it was better at correctly identifying those horses that did not have the disease (true negative cases).
• The most reliable and accurate results were obtained when radiography and scintigraphy were used together.

Comparison Between the Two Phases of Scintigraphy

The study compared soft tissue-phase scintigraphy and bone-phase scintigraphy and found:

• There were variations in sensitivity, particularly when scintigraphy revealed lesions not detected by radiography. This supports the idea that scintigraphy can provide additional valuable insights that radiography might miss.
• In some instances, a diagnosis of navicular disease was made when only one phase of scintigraphy showed lesions. However, the results from both phases were generally similar.

Conclusion

Based on their findings, the researchers concluded that scintigraphy can be an essential tool in diagnosing navicular disease in horses, especially when the results of radiographic examinations are unclear or do not match clinical findings. Combining radiography with both phases of scintigraphy provides the greatest accuracy in diagnosing this equine disease.