Doutoramento em Ciências Veterinárias
Distal limb osteoarthritis in the horse
Susana Monteiro

 Orientação: Elisa Maria Varela Bettencourt, Maria Manuela Melo Oliveira, Olivier M Lepage

The aim of this thesis was to study two objective methods of osteoarthritis (OA) diagnosis in horses and use them on the assessment of new intra-articular treatments. The studied methods were a new inertial-sensor based system of lameness detection and cartilage biomarkers in serum. It was found that distal limb flexion is significantly correlated to the presence of metacarpo-phalangeal OA in hind limbs and that inertial-sensors are sensitive on detecting asymmetry in these cases. A positive and significant correlation was observed between Coll2-1 concentration in serum and the presence of joint disease in young males. Fib3-2 measurement has good potential to be used since it is not influenced by sex or age. Using an experimental model of OA, adipose stem cells pre-activated with interferon-gamma decreased joint inflammation and radiographic lesions. In clinical cases, a single injection of high concentration and high molecular weight hyaluronic-acid decreased joint inflammation and biomarkers’ concentration.

Key words : equine; osteoartrithis; objective lameness diagnosis; intra-articular treatments