Abstract
Abstract: Radiology is an important, minimally invasive, diagnostic tool used to identify and treat pathological cases. Metacarpophalangeal joint (MCPJ) radiographic parameters have been developed to evaluate equine MCPJ conformation but the effect of MCPJ angle on these radiographic parameters has not been reported. This experiment was aimed to study the effect of MCPJ angle on 27 (12 angular and 15 ratio) MCPJ parameters and alsoto determine the acceptable range at which minimal changes occurred in those parameters. Six forelimbs from six different horses with no MCPJ abnormalities or visible pathology were collected. Each MCPJ was positioned vertically and digitally radiographed dorsopalmarly at seven different MCPJ angles within the normal range and with 5.5° intervals. MCPJ angles were achieved by applying different loads using a load cell. All parameters were measured on the 42 radiographs using EponaTech Metron software. Differences were estimated per 5.5° change in MCPJ angle for all parameters. The ratio parameters were generally less affected than the angular parameters. The amount of changes was small in the majority of the angular parameters and very small in all the ratio parameters. MCPJ angle ranged between 146° and 157° would be considered as the acceptable range for all these parameters.