Researchers Study Impact’s Impact on Bone Health

Finite-element modeling is providing a more in-depth look at equine joint health under varying loading conditions.
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Ontario Veterinary College graduate student Cristin McCarty is no stranger to joint health issues, as she’s had to work through her own athletic injuries from rowing. An avid rider since age 5, McCarty bought an ex-racehorse in her early teens for repurposing as a hunter/jumper and immediately began an education in joint problems and maintenance options aimed toward keeping her newly purchased horse sound. Today, she’s taking a more in-depth look at equine joint health and osteoarthritis (OA) using finite-element (FE) modeling of skeletal mechanics.

After pursuing an education in biology, McCarty worked with University of Guelph professors Jeff Thomason, MSc, PhD, and Mark Hurtig, DVM, MVSc, Dipl. ACVS. In their groundbreaking research they’re looking at joint loading of horses traveling at high speed. Thomason specializes in biomechanics, studying mechanics of locomotion in horses and in-vivo bone strain (FE) modeling, and Hurtig studies the mechanical causes of osteoarthritis.

McCarty has been working with FE, gathering and analyzing data on loads acting at the fetlock joint and stresses in the cannon bone. By creating a computer-generated model using computed tomographic (CT) or MRI images of an equine fetlock joint, they are working to determine the internal bone stress under varying loading conditions (rates, directions, and magnitudes) using FE software. This method of analysis could provide further insight into the biomechanical role impact has on the stress distribution in areas of high remodeling, which are associated with osteoarthritis in racehorses.

The automotive industry uses FE in crash test simulations to assess material failure, but it is a relatively new technology for biology applications. McCarty, who has been working under Thomason for three years, said, "It was a steep learning curve to become familiar with the software to build complex models. That alone took almost two years

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