Relationship between scintigraphic and radiographic evaluations of spinous processes in the thoracolumbar spine in riding horses without clinical signs of back problems

Abstract

Summary Reasons for performing study: Radiography and scintigraphy are used to aid diagnosis of the cause of back pain, but a large variation in appearance and radiopharmaceutical uptake in fully functioning horses make diagnosis difficult. Objectives: To describe the range of and compare scintigraphic and radiographic findings in the spinous processes of horses without clinical signs of back problems. Methods: Thirty‐three apparently normal riding horses underwent scintigraphic and radiographic examinations of the spinous processes in the thoracolumbar spine. Scintigraphic images were evaluated in a continuous blue, green and red colour scale, and the level of radiopharmaceutical uptake in the spinous processes from T10–L2 was graded into none, mild, moderate or severe increased radiopharmaceutical uptake. Structural changes along the borders of the spinous processes and the width of the interspinous spaces from T10–L2 were recorded. Results: Only 7 horses had no scintigraphic or radiographic findings. Nine horses had no increased radiopharmaceutical uptake, 17 had no sclerosis, 21 had no radiolucencies and 11 had normal spacing of the spinous processes (>4 mm wide). The majority of findings in 26 horses were located from T13–18 and were mild. Conclusions: The findings of a wide spectrum of scintigraphic and radiographic changes leads to the conclusion that changes within this range found in affected horses cannot be interpreted as clinically significant. Potential relevance: To determine whether scintigraphy and/or radiography can be used to separate horses with back pain from horses without clinical signs, the results from this study should be compared to the scintigraphic and radiographic findings in horses with clinical signs.

The radiographic frequency of impingement of the dorsal spinous processes at purchase examination and its clinical significance in 220 warmblood sporthorses

“…This standardised the intervertebral DSP distances and prevented over/under-estimation of the radiologic abnormalities of the DSPs. The location of radiologic abnormalities (mainly T14 -L2) was comparable with the previous reports (Jeffcott 1979(Jeffcott , 1980Townsend 1986;Kreling 1996;Haussler 1999, Erichsen 2004). …”

“…The lack of association between age and impinging spinous processes in our study was comparable to some previous studies (Jeffcott 1979, Haussler 1999, but was contradictory to the result of others (Erichsen 2004, Zimmerman 2011, Geiger 2015. Zimmerman et al (2011) found that horses with thoracolumbar pain were significantly older than those without pain.…”

“…Of the 220 horses 45.0 % had radiologic abnormalities of the dorsal spinous processes. A high prevalence of DSP impingement has been reported in several earlier studies in which a wide variety of abnormal findings of the DSPs was found on radiographic and scintigraphic examinations (Jeffcott 1979, Erichsen 2004, Holmer 2007. In a post-mortem study with 23 functionally normal horses 83 % had impingement of the dorsal spinous processes (Townsend 1986).…”

Diagnostic par imagerie des lésions de la région thoracolombaire chez le cheval

“…Les lésions les plus fréquentes sont représentées par les conflits et chevauchements des PE (Jeffcott 1980 ;Erichsen et al 2004;Denoix & Dyson 2011 ;Zimmerman et al 2011Zimmerman et al et 2012. Cette entité pathologique regroupe différent types de lésions: rétré-cissement de l'espace inter-épineux, conflits, voire chevauchement des PE et desmo/enthésopathies du ligament inter-épi-neux.…”

“…L'examen échographique a un inté-rêt moindre et peut être employé pour détecter un contact, des remodelages et remaniements, voire un défaut d'alignement des PE. La scintigraphie montre dans la plupart des cas une excellente corrélation avec les données radiographiques: à la fois pour la localisation et la sévérité des anomalies (Denoix & Dyson 2011 ;Zimmerman et al 2011 (Erichsen et al 2004). …”