Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How common are humeral bone cracks in brachycephalic dogs on CT scans
By Franklin, Chantelle et al.·Published in Veterinary radiology & ultrasound : the official journal of the American College of Veterinary Radiology and the International Veterinary Radiology Association·2023·Diagnostic Imaging - Queen's Veterinary School Hospital, United Kingdom·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Prevalence of incidental humeral intracondylar fissures in brachycephalic breed dogs in CT studies.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study looked at French Bulldogs and other brachycephalic breeds to see how common humeral intracondylar fissures (HIF) are, which can be a risk for elbow fractures. They found that about 11.8% of French Bulldogs had at least one elbow with a significant fissure, while Pugs had a similar rate of 11.1%. The researchers used CT scans to assess the elbows of 122 dogs, but they found no major differences in prevalence between the breeds. This means that while HIF can occur in these breeds, it doesn't seem to be more common in French Bulldogs compared to others.
People also search for: French Bulldog elbow problems · brachycephalic dog fractures · pug elbow fissures · dog CT scan results · humeral fissures in dogs
Abstract
Humeral intracondylar fissures (HIF) have been predominantly reported in spaniel breeds and proposed to be possible risk factors for humeral condyle fractures (HCF). We hypothesized that the prevalence of incidental HIF in French Bulldogs may be greater than that of other brachycephalic breeds. A retrospective, observational, prevalence study was performed using CT examinations of French bulldogs and other brachycephalic breed dogs presenting for an unrelated condition. Two European College of Veterinary Diagnostic and Imaging-certified radiologists reviewed the images of the humeral condyles of these dogs. A classification system was devised to grade the findings. We considered a Score 1 to be normal, Score 2 to have centralised sclerosis, Score 3 to have a partial fissure and Score 4 to have a complete fissure. A total of 228 elbows were reviewed from 122 dogs. Of this population, 145 elbows were from French Bulldogs, 54 were from Pugs, and the remainder were from a mix of other brachycephalic breeds. The prevalence of HIF (score 3 or 4) in elbows of the French bulldog, pug and other breed groups was 6.9% (CI 2.8-11%), 5.6% (CI 0-11.7%), and 3.4% (CI 0-10.15%), respectively. At a dog level, the prevalence of HIF (score 3 or 4 present in at least one elbow) was found to be 11.8% (CI 4.6-19%) in French Bulldogs, 11.1% (CI 0-22.9%) in Pugs, and 5.26% (CI 0-15%) in the other breed group. There was no significant difference between the breed groups. The inter-reviewer reliability for CT scoring of HIF based on Cohen's weighted kappa was low at 0.19.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36478490/