Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
Department of Clinical Science and Services, The Royal Veterinary College, North Mymms, Hatfield, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2019 Aug 13;14(8):e0221117. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0221117. eCollection 2019.
Quantitative gait analysis has revealed that a large proportion of horses in training, perceived as free from lameness by their owners, show movement asymmetries of equal magnitude to horses with mild clinical lameness. Whether these movement asymmetries are related to orthopaedic pain and/or pathology has yet to be further investigated. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine whether movement asymmetries in riding horses in training are affected by anti-inflammatory treatment with meloxicam. In a crossover design, horses were treated with meloxicam or placebo for four days respectively, with a 14-16 day washout period between treatments. Objective movement analysis utilising body mounted accelerometers was performed on a hard and a soft surface before and on day four of each treatment. A trial mean was calculated for the differences between the two vertical displacement minima and maxima of head (HDmin, HDmax) and pelvis (PDmin, PDmax) per stride. Horses (n = 66) with trial mean asymmetries greater than 6 mm for HDmin or HDmax, or more than 3 mm for PDmin or PDmax, at baseline were included. The difference before and after each treatment in the measured movement asymmetry was assessed with linear mixed models. Treatment with meloxicam did not significantly affect the movement asymmetry in any of the models applied (all p>0.30). These results raise new questions: are the movement asymmetries in riding horses in training simply expressions of biological variation or are they related to pain/dysfunction that is non-responsive to meloxicam treatment?
定量步态分析表明，很大一部分在训马，尽管其主人认为它们没有跛行，但它们的运动仍存在与轻度临床跛行马同等程度的不对称。这些运动不对称是否与骨科疼痛和/或病理有关，仍有待进一步研究。因此，本研究的目的是确定训练中的骑乘马的运动不对称是否受美洛昔康的抗炎治疗影响。采用交叉设计，马匹分别接受美洛昔康或安慰剂治疗 4 天，两种治疗之间有 14-16 天的洗脱期。在硬地和软地上，使用安装在身体上的加速度计进行客观的运动分析，在每个治疗的前一天和第四天进行。根据每一步的头部（HDmin，HDmax）和骨盆（PDmin，PDmax）的两个垂直位移最小值和最大值之间的差异计算试验平均值。在基线时，HDmin 或 HDmax 的试验平均值不对称大于 6mm，或 PDmin 或 PDmax 的不对称大于 3mm 的马匹（n=66）被纳入研究。采用线性混合模型评估每次治疗前后测量的运动不对称的差异。在应用的所有模型中（p>0.30），美洛昔康治疗均未显著影响运动不对称。这些结果提出了新的问题：训练中的骑乘马的运动不对称仅仅是生物变异的表现，还是与对美洛昔康治疗无反应的疼痛/功能障碍有关？
