Re: [pyrnet] Cruciate Ligament Disease

["Janice Swenson" <janices@austin.rr.com>]

On 4 Sep 2001, at 5:47, JGentzel@aol.com wrote:
> That is very interesting.  Does the article deal with what changes bio 
> mechanically or kinesalogically (sp?)?  Are these permanent conditions i.e. 
> continue to dislocate or happen just for a few weeks or months during growth 
> phases or both?  The anatomy there in the knee with the movement of the 
> patella is more complicated than many realize.

Joe, 
I pulled the abstract on the journal article.  I would have to ask my 
vet for a copy or jaunt down to the UT library to look up the article 
for all the knitty gritty conclusions.  The abstract does state that 
the distribution is 82% congenital and 15% acquired patellar 
luxations, and that surgical correction was performed primarily on 
dogs with grade 3&4 patellar luxations.  

There's another one that I found while doing this that I think is 
interesting that I'll have to see if I can find the article:  

Vet Radiol Ultrasound 2001 Mar;42(2):113-118
The correlation of canine patellar luxation and the anteversion angle 
as measured using magnetic resonance images.  
Kaiser S, Cornely D, Golder W, Garner MT, Wolf KJ, Waibl H, 
Brunnberg L.
Department of Small Animals, Free University of Berlin, Germany.

Measurements from magnetic resonance (MR) images can be 
used to examine the anteversion angle (AT-angle) and its influence 
on the lateromedial or mediolateral luxating forces on the patella. 
The AT-angle of the femoral neck was measured with the aid of MR 
imaging in 45 pelvic limbs without patellar instability, in 33 limbs 
with patellar luxation and in 6 limbs with rupture of the cranial 
cruciate ligament. The limbs with medial patellar luxation were 
divided into three groups based on clinical examination. The mean 
(range) AT-angle was 7.6 degrees (0 degrees to 24 degrees) in the 
"normal" group, 8.6 degrees (-10 degrees to 29 degrees) in the 
group "grade II," and -0.4 degrees in the group "grade III" (-28 
degrees to 12 degrees). A mean (range) AT-angle of 4.8 (-4 
degrees to 11 degrees) was measured in the pelvic limbs with 
rupture of the cranial cruciate ligament. Compared to literature that 
described AT-angles based on radiographs of normal limbs, 
reduced AT-angles were found in this study due to different lines of 
measurement of the femoral neck. This study documents that the 
AT-angle of the femoral neck does not influence patellar instability. 
This study also demonstrates that MR images can be used to 
make exact measurements of the canine AT-angle that represent 
the true anatomy of the femoral neck.  



Janice, janices@austin.rr.com
Lana & Linsey (newfs), Sonny (pyr)  
http://home.austin.rr.com/janices/
Hutto, TX