Bosch Katharina, Zsoldos Rebeka R, Hartig Astrid, Licka Theresia
Clinical Department for Small Animals and Horses, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, 1210 Vienna, Austria.
Department of Biosystems and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 23422 Alnarp, Sweden.
Animals (Basel). 2025 Aug 1;15(15):2259. doi: 10.3390/ani15152259.
The influence of soft tissue structures, including ligaments spanning one or more intervertebral junctions and the nuchal ligament, on motion of the equine cervical joints remains unclear. The present study addressed this using four post-mortem horse specimens extending from head to withers with all ligaments intact. Three-dimensional kinematics was obtained from markers on the head and bone-anchored markers on each cervical and the first thoracic vertebra during rotation, lateral bending, flexion and extension of the whole head, and neck segment. Yaw, pitch, and roll angles in 8 cervical joints (total 32) were calculated. Flexion and extension were expressed mainly as pitch in 27 and 22 joints, respectively. Rotation appeared as predominantly roll in 13 joints, whereas lateral bending was represented as predominantly yaw in 1 and as roll or pitch in all other joints. Significant correlations between yaw, pitch, and roll were observed at individual cervical joints in 97% of all measurements, with the atlanto-occipital joint showing complete (100%) correlation. Most non-significant correlations occurred at the C5-C6 joint, while C6-C7 exhibited significantly lower correlation coefficients compared to other levels. The overall movement of the head and neck is not replicated at individual cervical joint levels and should be considered when evaluating equine necks in vivo.
包括跨越一个或多个椎间关节的韧带和项韧带在内的软组织结构对马颈椎关节运动的影响仍不清楚。本研究使用了四个从头部到肩胛的死后马标本，所有韧带均保持完整，以解决这一问题。在整个头部和颈部节段进行旋转、侧弯、屈曲和伸展时，从头部的标记以及每个颈椎和第一胸椎上的骨锚定标记获取三维运动学数据。计算了8个颈椎关节（共32个）的偏航角、俯仰角和横滚角。屈曲和伸展在27个和22个关节中分别主要表现为俯仰。旋转在13个关节中主要表现为横滚，而侧弯在1个关节中主要表现为偏航，在所有其他关节中表现为横滚或俯仰。在所有测量中，97%的个体颈椎关节处观察到偏航、俯仰和横滚之间存在显著相关性，寰枕关节显示出完全（100%）相关性。大多数不显著的相关性出现在C5-C6关节处。与其他节段相比，C6-C7的相关系数显著较低。头部和颈部的整体运动在个体颈椎关节水平上无法复制，在体内评估马的颈部时应予以考虑。
