Pressure sensing mat as an objective and sensitive tool for the evaluation of lameness in rabbits

Christin von der Ahe; Hannah Marahrens; Michael Schwarze; Nina Angrisani; Janin Reifenrath

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0286918

Pressure sensing mat as an objective and sensitive tool for the evaluation of lameness in rabbits

PLoS One. 2023 Jul 7;18(7):e0286918. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0286918. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Christin von der Ahe^{1

2}, Hannah Marahrens^{1

3}, Michael Schwarze¹, Nina Angrisani^{1

2}, Janin Reifenrath^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Clinic for Orthopaedic Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany.
² Lower Saxony Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Implant Research and Development (NIFE), Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany.
³ Clinic for Small Cloven-hoofed Animals and Forensic Medicine and Ambulatory Clinic, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany.

Abstract

In orthopaedic research, the analysis of the gait pattern is an often-used evaluation method. It allows an assessment of changes in motion sequence and pain level during postoperative follow up periods. Visual assessments are highly subjective and dependent on the circumstances. Particular challenge in rabbits is their hopping gait pattern. The aim of the present study was to establish a more objective and sensitive lameness evaluation using a pressure sensing mat. Twelve NZW rabbits were implemented in the study. They got an artificial anterior cruciate ligament transection of the right knee in connection with an experimental study, which investigated PTOA treatment. Rabbits were examined by a visual lameness score. Additionally, load of the hindlimbs was measured by the use of a pressure sensing mat and a video was recorded. Peak pressure and time force integral, defined as cumulated integral of all sensors associated to a hind paw, were evaluated. Preoperative data were collected on three independent days. As postoperative measurement time points, week 1 and week 12 after surgery were chosen. The subjective visual scoring was compared to the objective data of the pressure sensing mat. Following the visual score, lameness in week one was mild to moderate. In week twelve, rabbits were evaluated as lame free bar one. Contrary, following the values of the sensor mat, lameness in week one appeared to be more pronounced and almost all rabbits still showed low-grade lameness in week twelve. Consequently, the pressure sensing mat is more sensitive than the visual score and captures the grade of lameness much more accurately. For specific orthopaedic issues, where subtle differences in lameness are important to detect, the used system is a good supplementary evaluation method.

Copyright: © 2023 von der Ahe et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Anterior Cruciate Ligament
Biomechanical Phenomena
Gait
Lagomorpha*
Lameness, Animal* / diagnosis
Rabbits

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), specific grant number 404534760 (project number). NA received each award. URL to sponsors’ websites: https://www.dfg.de/ The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.