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Summary Reasons for performing study: Sacroiliac (SI) disease is recognised as a cause of poorhindlimb action but differential diagnosis is often difficult. Hypotheses: That in clinically normal horses there would be a significant difference in the ratio of radiopharmaceutical uptake (RU) between the fifth lumbar vertebra (L5) and each tuber sacrale (TS) and between L5 and each SI joint; and that these ratios would alter with age, but ratios would be bilaterally symmetrical. Methods: Dorsal scintigraphic images of the SI region of 15 horses, selected randomly from the clinic database, were analysed by 2 of the authors, comparing noncorrected and motion‐corrected images. To determine scintigraphic anatomy, the scintigraphic images of 10 Thoroughbred horses were superimposed over a ventrodorsal radiographic image of an isolated pelvis. Dorsal scintigraphic images of 40 clinically normal horses age 3–16 years were evaluated using subjective examination, profile analysis and quantification using regions of interest. Results: The tubera sacrale were seen as 2 well‐defined oval regions immediately to the left and right of the midline, abaxial to which were larger, approximately oval areas with less RU, representing uptake in the SI joints. The definition between the SI region and the TS was more obvious in younger horses. Nonmotion‐corrected images were often not of diagnostic quality or could be misinterpreted as abnormal. There were significant differences in RU between the TS and SI joints compared to L5, and decreased RU in the tubera sacrale with increasing age, but no change of uptake in the SI joint region and no effect of gender on RU. There was a high degree of left‐right symmetry of the TS and SI joint regions. Conclusions and potential relevance: The scintigraphic images of horses with suspected sacroiliac joint disease should be compared with images of normal horses of comparable age. In normal horses, there was a high degree of symmetry; therefore, marked left‐right asymmetry is likely to be abnormal.

Summary Reasons for performing study: Sacroiliac (SI) joint disease is difficult to diagnose definitively on clinical grounds. Hypotheses: Lameness not attributable to SI joint pain may result in asymmetrical uptake of radiopharmaceutical in the tubera sacrale and SI joints; and that horses with clinical signs suggestive of sacroiliac joint disease would have differences in the ratios of radiopharmaceutical uptake between the fifth lumbarvertebra (L5) and either the tubera sacrale or SI joints compared with normal horses. Objectives: To determine whether differences in radiopharmaceutical activity could identify individuals with presumed SI joint region pain. Methods: The scintigraphic appearance of the pelvic region of 234 horses (Group I) with lameness unrelated to the SI joints was compared with that for 40 normal horses (Group N) in full work and that for 41 horses with suspected SI joint disease (Group II). The effect of age, sex, lame limb and discipline were assessed in Group I. Motion‐corrected scintigraphic images were assessed grossly, using profile analysis and by comparing ratios of uptake of mean count per pixel between L5 and each of the left (L) tuber sacrale (TS), right (R) TS, LSI and RSI joints. Left‐right symmetry was compared. Results: Lame horses (Group I) had greater asymmetry of radiopharmaceutical uptake in the tubera sacrale compared with normal horses. Horses with right hindlimb lameness had a larger RSI/LSI ratio compared to normal horses. In Group I L5/LTS, L5/RTS and L5/RSI increased with age, and there was a trend for L5/LSI to increase with age. In horses with presumed sacroiliac joint disease (Group II), L5/LTS, L5/RTS and L5/RSI were all greater compared with normal horses. Detection of marked left‐right asymmetry by quantitative analysis or profile analysis was helpful in discriminating between those horses with clinical signs compatible with SI joint disease and either normal horses or those lame due to another cause. Conclusions and potential relevance: Scintigraphic evaluation of the SI region is useful to identify SI joint disease in combination with other clinical signs supportive of the diagnosis. However, diagnosis should not be based on this alone because of some degree of overlap in the range of radiopharmaceutical uptake between horses with SI joint disease and both normal horses and those with other causes of lameness.

Venous ulceration is a major problem, particularly in the elderly population. It causes stress to the patient and treatment can be time-consuming. Compression therapy is considered to be the most appropriate non-invasive treatment of venous ulcers. It is generally accepted that composite bandage systems are most efficacious using a long-stretch or short-stretch bandage system. The study reported has compared a long-stretch bandage (Setopress) with a short-stretch bandage (Elastocrepe) over a 16-week period in the treatment of patients with venous ulceration. The trial was a prospective, randomized, observer-blind, parallel group study. Thirty-two patients (male and female) with a total of 39 ulcers completed the trial. After 15 weeks, 11 of 19 ulcers treated with the long-stretch bandage and 7 of 20 ulcers treated with the short-stretch bandage had healed. The differences were not statistically significant. After 15 weeks, the ulcer healing rate for the long-stretch bandage was 58% compared with 35% for the short-stretch bandage. The combined proportion of ulcers healed or improved was statistically significantly greater in the long-stretch bandage group.