Agreement among equine veterinarians and between equine veterinarians and inertial sensor system during clinical examination of hindlimb lameness in horses.
Authors: Leelamankong P, Estrada R, Mählmann K, Rungsri P, Lischer C
Journal: Equine veterinary journal
Summary
# Editorial Summary Evaluating hindlimb lameness remains one of the most subjective aspects of equine clinical practice, with even experienced veterinarians prone to inconsistency and bias. Leelamankong and colleagues examined 26 lame horses using both traditional clinical examination and a body-mounted inertial sensor system (BMISS), with 13 veterinarians of varying experience levels also assessing video recordings of the same horses; agreement between assessors was rated as 'fair' across all experience groups, whilst the BMISS showed 'fair' agreement with highly experienced veterinarians, declining to 'slight-to-fair' and 'slight' with moderately and inexperienced groups respectively. Most encouragingly, when evaluating lameness improvement following diagnostic analgesia, highly experienced veterinarians and the BMISS demonstrated 'strong' agreement—a substantially higher level of concordance than in the initial lameness detection phase. These findings suggest that objective measurement systems have particular value as a supporting tool for validating treatment responses and clinical decision-making in hindlimb cases, particularly given that even experienced clinicians cannot reliably outperform instrumented gait analysis during routine assessment. The integration of BMISS technology alongside traditional clinical evaluation may help reduce diagnostic errors and improve consistency in lameness management across different clinical settings and experience levels.
Read the full abstract on PubMed
Practical Takeaways
- •Body-mounted inertial sensors are valuable supporting tools for lameness evaluation, particularly for detecting changes in lameness after treatment, even when veterinarian agreement is moderate
- •Video-based lameness assessment is more challenging than live evaluation and may not accurately reflect clinical findings—prefer live examination when possible
- •Use BMISS technology alongside clinical judgment rather than as a replacement, as objective measurement shows strongest utility in confirming improvement post-analgesia
Key Findings
- •Interobserver agreement among veterinarians of all experience levels was 'fair' when evaluating hindlimb lameness from videos
- •Agreement between body-mounted inertial sensor system (BMISS) and veterinarians ranged from 'slight' (inexperienced) to 'fair' (highly experienced group)
- •BMISS and highly experienced veterinarians showed 'strong' agreement in detecting lameness improvement after diagnostic analgesia
- •Experience level did not significantly improve reliability in video-based lameness evaluation compared to live clinical assessment