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  Discussion on Research Study: Force Plate Gait Analysis
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DrO

Posted on Thursday, Mar 5, 2009 - 7:38 am:

Just recently there has been a large well conducted study that found even among very experienced equine veterinarians there was a poor ability to consistently identify the correct lame leg in grade 1 lameness cases. This was particularly true when the lame leg was a rear leg. Grade 1 is defined as: difficult to observe and not consistently apparent regardless of circumstances. Considering the definition maybe this is not surprising.

However science is coming to aid of the practitioner stymied by what is going on with kinematic techniques that can objectively identify what the horse is doing. In this study force place analysis was not only good at identifying horses with altered gaits but also able to differentiate those horses that were lame (pain on weight bearing) versus those that were ataxic (incoordinated).

J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2009 Mar 1;234(5):644-51.
Use of kinetic gait analysis for detection, quantification, and differentiation of hind limb lameness and spinal ataxia in horses.

Ishihara A, Reed SM, Rajala-Schultz PJ, Robertson JT, Bertone AL.

Comparative Orthopedic Research Laboratories, Department of Veterinary Biosciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210.

Objective-To evaluate use of kinetic gait analysis for detection, quantification, and differentiation of hind limb lameness and spinal ataxia in horses. Design-Prospective clinical study. Animals-36 horses. Procedures-Kinetic gait analysis with a force plate was performed for 12 clinically normal horses, 12 horses with hind limb lameness, and 12 horses with spinal ataxia. Kinetic variables were compared among groups, correlated to subjective grading, and used to build predictive models to assess the accuracy of discrimination. Results-Subsets of kinetic variables were characteristically altered in ataxic and lame gaits. Ataxic horses had significantly increased lateral force peak and variation in vertical force peaks in both hind limbs. Lame horses had significantly decreased vertical force peak and increased variation in vertical force peaks only in the lame hind limb. These variables were used to differentiate between spinal ataxia and hind limb lameness with excellent accuracy. There were significant correlations between a subset of kinetic variables and subjective lameness and neurologic grades. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance-Kinetic gait variables, specifically lateral force peak and the variation in vertical force, can be used to support the differential diagnosis between spinal ataxia and hind limb lameness in horses. Kinetic gait analysis may also be applied for quantification of equine hind limb gait abnormalities as well as confirming lack of lameness and ataxia in soundness examinations.
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