South African Equine Veterinary Association Congress 2015 Protea Hotel Stellenbosch
countries without many conflicting differential diagnoses because the prevalence of true vertebral
compression in ataxic horses is relatively higher.
Additional techniques that have been used or proposed for evaluating horses with compressive
myelopathy include electromyography of the cervical musculature (examining for presence of
signs of local muscle denervation caused by grey matter or peripheral nerve disease), (Wijnberg et
al. 2004). transtentorial magnetic stimulation (Nollet et al. 2004) and kinematic gait
analysis,(Keegan et al. 2004) but such techniques require further validation before their
widespread use is recommended. Ante-mortem diagnosis of CSM therefore has inherent problems
and limitations (Olsen et al. 2014), of which the clinician should be aware, but a combination of
tests and methodologies taken in the context of the signalment, history and comprehensive
physical and neurological examinations likely optimises accurate diagnosis.
References
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