EAG Findings Could Help in Diagnosing Fetlock Injuries

Electroarthrography (EAG) could be used to detect damaged or osteoarthritic cartilage in a noninvasive manner.
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Mark Hurtig, DVM, MVSc, Dipl. ACVS, of the Ontario Veterinary College, in Canada, is currently studying electroarthrography (EAG), while could be a noninvasive way to assess joint cartilage health in fetlocks (the most commonly injured joint in horses).

Current technologies to assess fetlock health have limitations. Veterinarians mainly use physical exams, diagnostic injections, X ray images, and ultrasound, but these methods provide little to no information about the quantity or health of the articular cartilage that is critical for pain-free joint function.

With EAG, veterinarians place dime-sized electrodes on the skin to record electrical signals produced by joint cartilage when loaded and unloaded. Researchers from the Université de Montréal and École Polytechnique reasoned that electrical signals might be measured on the skin surface similar to electrocardiography (ECG) for the heart. They found that people with knee arthritis had lower electrical potentials than normal people. So the concept of electroarthrography (EAG) was born. Hurtig's contribution—with his team of postdoctoral fellows and graduate students—is applying the technique to horses by performing validation studies in cadaveric limbs, in which electrical signals can be directly correlated to cartilage quality.

"We thought that the fetlock might be a good place to start in the horse since the cartilage surface is close to the skin without any bulky muscles overlying the joint," Hurtig said

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