Early Diagnosis of Canine Hip Dysplasia

We investigated effectiveness and potential use of early diagnosis of hip joint dysplasia in German Shepherd dogs by X-ray examination comparing the conventional extension position I with compression-distraction method. In addition to that we also used Ortolani palpation technique and X-ray examination of the hip joint in order to obtain view of its dorsal acetabular rim (DAR) and dorsal acetabular rim angle (DARA) with respect to the femoral head. Examinations were carried out first on dogs 4–6 months old and repeatedly when they reached age of 12 months. We examined altogether 25 German Shepherd dogs but only 10 of them were used for evaluation because for the remaining ones we lacked one or more relevant measurements. Even if the evaluations included all of them, the results were not influenced significantly. When evaluating the early diagnosis, we used the Norberg angle (NA), distraction index (DI) and evaluated every hip joint by assigning to it a hip dysplasia score according to the FCI (Fédération Cynologique Internationale) dysplasia scheme. When comparing the values by means of Pearson correlation coefficient we detected significant correlation between DI12/ FCI12 (distraction index at the age of 12 months/FCI score at the age of 12 months) and DI4/FCI12 (distraction index at the age of 4 months in comparison with FCI evaluation at the age of 12 months) (0.86 and 0.78, resp.). When presenting the early prognosis on the basis of DI and DARA values at the age of 4 months, we observed agreement with the final diagnosis made at the age of 12 months on the basis of NA values and FCI score in 80 % of evaluated dogs. EARLY DIAGNOSIS OF CANINE HIP DYSPLASIA Skurková, L., Ledecký, V. University of Veterinary Medicine, Komenského 73, 041 81 Košice The Slovak Republic [email protected] FOLIA VETERINARIA, 53, 2: 77—82, 2009