A preliminary evaluation of the reliability of a modified functional scoring system for assessing neurologic function in ambulatory thoracolumbar myelopathy dogs

BMC Veterinary Research

Gert J. Breur¹  Hsin-Yi Weng²  R. Timothy Bentley¹  Chung-Sheng Lee³ 

[1] Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University, 625 Harrison Street, West Lafayette 47907, IN, USA;Department of Comparative Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University, 625 Harrison Street, West Lafayette 47907, IN, USA;Present Address: Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Mississippi State University, Starkville 39762, MS, USA

关键词: Outcome;    Intervertebral disc disease;    Spinal;    Gait analysis;    Canine;   

Others  :  1227227
DOI  :  10.1186/s12917-015-0557-8

 received in 2015-02-13, accepted in 2015-09-21,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

The objective of this study was to develop and assess the reliability of a modified scoring system for evaluating the function of the two pelvic limbs separately, in ambulatory thoracolumbar myelopathy dogs. A previously established neurologic score scale for dogs with T3-L3 lesions was modified in order to provide a separate score for each pelvic limb.

Results

Seventeen ambulatory dogs with thoracolumbar myelopathies were evaluated. Using the new scale, two observers independently performed 22 observational gait analyses (OGAs) in ten dogs without videotape. Another 18 OGAs were performed in seven dogs by watching videotapes of them ambulating. There was poor agreement (concordance correlation coefficient, 0.87) between the two observers for all 40 OGAs. When stratified, the agreement was moderate (concordance correlation coefficient, 0.90) in the OGAs without videotaping and poor (concordance correlation coefficient, 0.80) for the OGAs based on videotapes. For the decision regarding which pelvic limb was more severely affected, a fair agreement (kappa value, 0.30) between the two observers was noted. Without videotape there was only slight agreement (kappa value, 0.05), but with videotape there was moderate agreement (kappa value, 0.56).

Conclusions

The modified scoring system in this study provides moderate reliability in assessing the functional neurologic status of each pelvic limb, by OGA without videotape, in canine T3-L3 patients. Further development of this scoring system is required. However, imperfect agreement when visually quantifying neurological deficits is not unexpected.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Lee et al.

【 图 表 】

Fig. 1.

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