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EquiPerfoRM – PTDC/CVT-CVT/32613/2017

“Three dimensional motion analysis for monitoring of rehabilitation and high performance training of the equine athlete.” EquiPerfoRM – PTDC/CVT-CVT/32613/2017”

Abstract proposed:

“Lameness and musculoskeletal injury are the main reasons for veterinary medical intervention, performance loss and reduction of well-being in sports horses. In order to maintain orthopaedic health, maximizing the athletic career, more attention should be paid to equine rehabilitation, decreasing pain and inflammation while preventing further injury and restoring normal function. Until now equine rehabilitation protocols have been the object of few studies, remaining a science of parallelisms with human rehabilitation. Hence it should be more studied, so that the treatments become more evidence based, hence of better quality and efficacy.

As every episode of lameness is marked with specific, objective and individual biomechanical evidence, sequential analysis of the evolution of the kinematics of locomotion during rehabilitation is the most objective manner of determining the efficacy of the treatments employed. This study will have 3 goals: the first one will be to validate a kinematic analysis methodology, using the Vicon system, under field conditions, another objective will be to validate the effect on locomotion of different rehabilitation protocols and the other objective will be to analyse the impact on locomotion of high performance training protocols.

After validating the methodology, a kinematical analysis will study the effects of different rehabilitation protocols, as well as of high performance training. This analysis will be done in a covered arena, over sand soil, using 9 Vicon cameras and 106 reflective markers, completed with the Nexus software. This will yield a full body equine model, which can be divided in 26 different segments. The kinematic analysis of locomotion will be done during hand walk and trot, after the horses are familiarized with the experimental setting. Will be included in this study horses referred for rehabilitation treatments at an equine rehabilitation centre, after confirmed diagnosis based in clinical and complementary exams evidences.

They will be subject to a locomotion kinematical analysis before the beginning of the rehabilitation protocol, at its ending and every 7 days in-between. Both, osteoarticular and soft tissue limb lesions, as well as dorsal shaft lesions will be studied. The rehabilitation protocols will include under water treadmill, hypertonic cold-water immersion, kinesiotape, conventional and endorphinic transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, ultrasound and manual therapy. The second group of horses included in this study will be the ones referred to the rehabilitation centre for high performance training, including underwater treadmill, kinesiotape and proprioceptive tracks and bracelets. These horses will be subjected to a kinematical analysis at the beginning and at the end of the protocol, using the same methodology as described above. The locomotor response to either the rehabilitation or high performance studied protocols will help to validate and improve them.”