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Rater agreement on gait assessment during neurologic examination of horses.

ABSTRACT: Reproducible and accurate recognition of presence and severity of ataxia in horses with neurologic disease is important when establishing a diagnosis, assessing response to treatment, and making recommendations that might influence rider safety or a decision for euthanasia.To determine the reproducibility and validity of the gait assessment component in the neurologic examination of horses.Twenty-five horses referred to the Royal Veterinary College Equine Referral Hospital for neurological assessment (n = 15), purchased (without a history of gait abnormalities) for an unrelated study (n = 5), or donated because of perceived ataxia (n = 5).Utilizing a prospective study design; a group of board-certified medicine (n = 2) and surgery (n = 2) clinicians and residents (n = 2) assessed components of the equine neurologic examination (live and video recorded) and assigned individual and overall neurologic gait deficit grades (0-4). Inter-rater agreement and assessment-reassessment reliability were quantified using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC).The ICCs of the selected components of the neurologic examination ranged from 0 to 0.69. "Backing up" and "recognition of mistakes over obstacle" were the only components with an ICC > 0.6. Assessment-reassessment agreement was poor to fair. The agreement on gait grading was good overall (ICC = 0.74), but poor for grades ? 1 (ICC = 0.08) and fair for ataxia grades ? 2 (ICC = 0.43). Clinicians with prior knowledge of a possible gait abnormality were more likely to assign a grade higher than the median grade.Clinicians should be aware of poor agreement even between skilled observers of equine gait abnormalities, especially when the clinical signs are subtle.

SUBMITTER: Olsen E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4857973 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar-Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Rater agreement on gait assessment during neurologic examination of horses.

Olsen E E Dunkel B B Barker W H J WH Finding E J T EJ Perkins J D JD Witte T H TH Yates L J LJ Andersen P H PH Baiker K K Piercy R J RJ

Journal of veterinary internal medicine 20140224 2

<h4>Background</h4>Reproducible and accurate recognition of presence and severity of ataxia in horses with neurologic disease is important when establishing a diagnosis, assessing response to treatment, and making recommendations that might influence rider safety or a decision for euthanasia.<h4>Objectives</h4>To determine the reproducibility and validity of the gait assessment component in the neurologic examination of horses.<h4>Animals</h4>Twenty-five horses referred to the Royal Veterinary C ...[more]

PMID: 24612411

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Rater agreement on gait assessment during neurologic examination of horses.

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Rater agreement on gait assessment during neurologic examination of horses.

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