In veterinary practice, a thorough gait examination is essential in the clinical workup of any orthopedic patient, including the large population of dogs with chronic pain as a result of osteoarthritis. The traditional visual gait examination is, however, a subjective discipline, and systems for kinetic gait analysis may potentially offer an objective alternative for gait assessment by the measurement of ground reaction forces. In order to avoid unnecessary testing of patients, a thorough, stepwise evaluation of the diagnostic performance of each system is recommended before clinical use for diagnostic purposes. The aim of the study was to evaluate the Tekscan pressure-sensitive walkway system by assessing precision (agreement between repetitive measurements in individual dogs) and overlap performance (the ability to distinguish dogs with lameness due to osteoarthritis from clinically healthy dogs). Direction of travel over the walkway was investigated as a possible bias. Symmetry indices are commonly used to assess lameness by comparing ground reaction forces across different combinations of limbs in each dog. However, SIs can be calculated in several different ways and specific recommendations for optimal use of individual indices are currently lacking. Therefore the present study also compared indices in order to recommend a specific index preferable for future studies of canine osteoarthritis. Forty-one clinically healthy dogs and 21 dogs with osteoarthritis were included in the study. High precision was demonstrated. The direction of travel over the walkway was excluded as a possible bias. A significant overlap was observed when comparing ground reaction forces measured in dogs with osteoarthritis compared to clinically healthy dogs. In some affected dogs, symmetry indices comparing contralateral limbs differed from clinically healthy dogs, but in general, the overlap performance was insufficient and, consequently, general use of this method for diagnostic purposes in dogs with osteoarthritis cannot be recommended.

BackgroundCranial cruciate ligament rupture is a prevalent injury in dogs, and tibial plateau leveling osteotomy (TPLO) is one of the preferred surgical techniques. Surgical site infection is a possible complication following TPLO and measurement of serum acute phase proteins is suggested to be a way to early recognize and distinguish postoperative infectious complications from normal postoperative inflammatory conditions. In this study we investigate the changes in concentrations of the systemic inflammatory markers C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid A (SAA) following tibial plateau leveling osteotomy (TPLO) in dogs and evaluate if deviations from the changes expectedly induced by the surgical procedure are useful in early detection of post-surgical infections. Dogs with cranial cruciate ligament injuries treated by TPLO at the Region Animal Hospital of Helsingborg during 2012 were included. Dogs with concurrent diseases, other orthopedic problems, or noninfectious post-surgical complications were excluded. Serial measurements of CRP and SAA concentrations were made. Changes in concentrations were visualized graphically and the discriminative capacity to detect infectious post-surgical complications was tested at different time points.ResultsA characteristic pattern of changes in concentrations of CRP and SAA were observed following TPLO with a significant increase 24 h post-surgery in all dogs and baseline-concentrations re-established at day 12. In dogs that developed post-surgical infections, a deviation in form of significantly higher concentrations of CRP and SAA were observed at day 6, compared to un-complicated cases. High-discriminative clinical decision limits of CRP (43.9 mg/L) and SAA (63.8 mg/L) could be established for differentiation of dogs with and without clinical signs of infectious complications at day 6 post-operatively, applicable to reliably rule out presence of infectious complications due to very high sensitivity (no false negatives).ConclusionsThe CRP and SAA levels in dogs with clinical signs of post-surgical infectious complication deviated from the typical levels expected at day 6 after surgery, and clinical decision limits to reliably rule out presence of infectious complications was suggested.

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Background Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) can be collected into ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) or plain tubes. The EDTA content presumably contributes to a better cell preservation. EDTA, however, is reported to cause a false elevation in the total protein concentration and to dilute the CSF sample, thereby affecting the diagnostic interpretation. To the authors’ knowledge, no validated studies support this view. The aim of this study was therefore to determine if the choice of tube (EDTA or plain) influences the results of the standard CSF analysis. Results Thirty-two paired EDTA stabilised and plain CSF samples were included. There was no statistically significant difference in the semi-quantitative protein concentrations when comparing CSF samples from EDTA and plain plastic tubes (P > 0.99). The total nucleated cell count did not differ significantly between EDTA and plain tube samples (P = 0.85). There were no significant differences in the differential cell counts between the two tubes when evaluating polymorphonuclear cells (P = 0.90), lymphocytes (P = 0.84) and monocytes/macrophages (P = 0.86). Also, there was no significant difference in the preservation of cell morphology when evaluating cytological preparations from EDTA stabilised and plain tube samples (P = 0.45). Conclusions The collection of CSF into EDTA tubes does not influence the result of the standard CSF analysis. However, a presumed positive effect of EDTA on cell preservation could not be shown in the present study.

RESULTS 275 dogs were included for the study and postoperative antibiotics were dispensed to 168 (61.1%) dogs. NLP was used in 114 (41.5%), LP in 128 (46.5%) and DLP in 33 (12%) dogs. Postoperative infection was diagnosed in 48 (17.5%) dogs. Dogs with NLP, LP, and DLP had postoperative infection rates of 24.5%, 13.3%, and 9.1%, respectively. The usage of a locking construct and postoperative antibiotic therapy were associated with significant reductions in postoperative infection. A non-locking construct increased and postoperative antibiotics decreased the risk of infection by 2.08 and 2.37 times, respectively. However, DLP did not result in a statistically significant reduction in infection.