| Abstrakt: |
Summary: Clinical and radiographic examination of the cervical spine has been of increasing interest in the prepurchase examination and clinical work‐up conducted for horses. The objective of this study was to describe a grading system useful for evaluating all the cervical articular process joints (cAPJs). Additionally, the findings of the cervical radiographs (occiput, cAPJ and intercentral joint space grading, intra‐ and intervertebral sagittal ratios, and intervertebral disc width measurements) were reported, and their association with clinical complaints in a large group of Dutch Warmblood horses (n = 598) were investigated. Significant associations were found between cAPJ radiographic grades and clinical complaints using the chi‐squared test (C2‐3 [P = 0.01], C5‐6 [P = 0.006], C6‐7 [P < 0.001], and C7‐T1 [P = 0.02]). Higher occiput grades were significantly associated with clinical complaints (chi‐squared test, P = 0.005). A large variability was found for intra‐ and intervertebral ratios and minimum intercentral joint space in the control group, but no significant association between intercentral joint space and clinical complaints was observed using the Kruskal–Wallis test followed by post hoc testing with the Wilcoxon rank sum test with a Bonferroni correction. The main limitations of this study were that only information regarding localisation was used for the statistical analyses, without any other details of the clinical complaints. Furthermore, clinical records were retrospectively reviewed, and a bias towards cervical findings in the clinical data recordings should be considered. It was concluded that knowledge of the distribution of the radiographic findings evaluated in this study and their associated clinical relevance can be useful in reaching a science‐based diagnosis in daily practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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