Using ultrasound to predict return to form for injured racehorses

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Horse racing is an ancient and global sport with thoroughbred racing a multi-million pound industry that has been dubbed ‘the Sport of Kings’. There are around 14,000 horses currently in training in the UK alone. Not all will end up competing on the 60 racecourses throughout Britain but of those who do a relatively small percentage will suffer a tendon injury. A high proportion of these will not be fit to race again and will have to be retrained for an alternative career. Standard treatment for tendon injury in a racehorse is the 3 ‘Equine Rs’ – Rest (until able to race again), Rehabilitation (toward an alternative career) or Retirement. In this new study, researchers from Oakham Equine Hospital in the East Midlands, the Hong Kong Jockey Club and Nottingham Vet School developed a statistical model which related ultrasound changes in 469 racehorses when the tendon injury first occurred to the likelihood of that horse making a successful return to racing (defined as completing at least 5 races after rehabilitation). The data used in the study are unique in that the Hong Kong Jockey Club has standardised recording of clinical records for all racehorses over many years. All racehorses train and race on the same track, live together in the same racing yard and are attended to by the same vets. These characteristics enabled the researchers to perform a large-scale cohort study with long-term follow up of each injured racehorse. Their predictive model found that clinicians should concentrate on two main characteristics of the tendon injury, each easily assessed by ultrasound at first presentation; the cross-sectional area of the lesion and the extent of disruption to the normally highly-ordered pattern of tendon fibres.

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