Clinical and radiographic examination of the cervical spine has been of increasing interest in the prepurchase examination and clinical work-up conducted for horses. The objective of this study was to describe a grading system useful for evaluating all the cervical articular process joints (cAPJs). Additionally, the findings of the cervical radiographs (occiput, cAPJ and intercentral joint space grading, intra- and intervertebral sagittal ratios, and intervertebral disc width measurements) were reported, and their association with clinical complaints in a large group of Dutch Warmblood horses (n = 598) were investigated. Significant associations were found between cAPJ radiographic grades and clinical complaints using the chi-squared test (C2-3 [P = 0.01], C5-6 [P = 0.006], C6-7 [P < 0.001], and C7-T1 [P = 0.02]). Higher occiput grades were significantly associated with clinical complaints (chi-squared test, P = 0.005). A large variability was found for intra- and intervertebral ratios and minimum intercentral joint space in the control group, but no significant association between intercentral joint space and clinical complaints was observed using the Kruskal–Wallis test followed by post hoc testing with the Wilcoxon rank sum test with a Bonferroni correction. The main limitations of this study were that only information regarding localisation was used for the statistical analyses, without any other details of the clinical complaints. Furthermore, clinical records were retrospectively reviewed, and a bias towards cervical findings in the clinical data recordings should be considered. It was concluded that knowledge of the distribution of the radiographic findings evaluated in this study and their associated clinical relevance can be useful in reaching a science-based diagnosis in daily practice.

中文翻译：

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对荷兰温血马的颈椎 X 线片进行评估，使用一种用于颈椎关节突关节的新型 X 光片分级系统

颈椎的临床和放射学检查在为马进行的购买前检查和临床检查中越来越受到关注。本研究的目的是描述一个用于评估所有颈椎关节突关节 (cAPJ) 的分级系统。此外，还报告了颈椎 X 光片的发现（枕骨、cAPJ 和中央关节间隙分级、椎间和椎间矢状比以及椎间盘宽度测量），以及它们与一大群荷兰温血马（n = 598) 进行了调查。使用卡方检验发现 cAPJ 影像学分级与临床主诉之间存在显着关联（C2-3 [P = 0.01]、C5-6 [P = 0.006]、C6-7 [P < 0.001] 和 C7-T1 [ P = 0.02]）。较高的枕骨等级与临床症状显着相关（卡方检验，P = 0.005）。发现对照组的椎内和椎间比率以及最小中央关节间隙存在很大差异，但使用 Kruskal-Wallis 检验和 Wilcoxon 秩和的事后检验未观察到中央关节间隙与临床主诉之间的显着关联使用 Bonferroni 校正进行测试。这项研究的主要局限性是仅使用有关定位的信息进行统计分析，没有任何其他临床主诉的详细信息。此外，回顾性审查临床记录，应考虑临床数据记录中对宫颈检查结果的偏倚。