TY - JOUR
T1 - Development and Evaluation of a Muscle Atrophy Scoring System (MASS) for Horses
AU - Herbst, Alisa C.
AU - Johnson, Mackenzie G.
AU - Gammons, Hayley
AU - Reedy, Stephanie E.
AU - Urschel, Kristine L.
AU - Harris, Patricia A.
AU - Adams, Amanda A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2022/3
Y1 - 2022/3
N2 - Loss of skeletal muscle mass likely compromises performance and welfare in horses and thus routine monitoring would be valuable. Currently available methods to assess muscle mass require expert knowledge and are often expensive. To provide a simple method, a muscle atrophy scoring system (MASS) was created and tested by three evaluators (raters) in 38 horses of varying age, breed, and health status. Inter-rater agreement on atrophy scores was in the good-to-excellent range for ratings of the neck (ICC = 0.62), back (ICC = 0.62) and hind (ICC = 0.76) regions but was poor for the abdominal region (ICC = 0.29). Due to this low agreement, the abdominal region was excluded from further analysis. Associations between muscle atrophy scores and age, pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID) status, and body composition indicators, including weight and estimated fat-free mass (FFM), were examined. Weight was inversely associated with neck, back and hind muscle atrophy scores (β = -0.008, β = -0.008, β = -0.009, respectively; all P <0.001), but estimated FFM was not associated with muscle atrophy scores at any region (P >0.05). Age was positively related to neck (β = 0.030, P <0.01), back (β = 0.037, P <0.001) and hind (β = 0.040, P <0.001) muscle atrophy scores. PPID-positive horses (n = 4) had higher muscle atrophy scores than PPID-negative horses (n = 23), even after adjusting for age (P <0.05). This data suggests that neck, back and hind region evaluations by individual raters likely have acceptable reliability. In addition, these findings support further evaluation of the potential benefits of the MASS to identify and monitor muscle atrophy in horses.
AB - Loss of skeletal muscle mass likely compromises performance and welfare in horses and thus routine monitoring would be valuable. Currently available methods to assess muscle mass require expert knowledge and are often expensive. To provide a simple method, a muscle atrophy scoring system (MASS) was created and tested by three evaluators (raters) in 38 horses of varying age, breed, and health status. Inter-rater agreement on atrophy scores was in the good-to-excellent range for ratings of the neck (ICC = 0.62), back (ICC = 0.62) and hind (ICC = 0.76) regions but was poor for the abdominal region (ICC = 0.29). Due to this low agreement, the abdominal region was excluded from further analysis. Associations between muscle atrophy scores and age, pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID) status, and body composition indicators, including weight and estimated fat-free mass (FFM), were examined. Weight was inversely associated with neck, back and hind muscle atrophy scores (β = -0.008, β = -0.008, β = -0.009, respectively; all P <0.001), but estimated FFM was not associated with muscle atrophy scores at any region (P >0.05). Age was positively related to neck (β = 0.030, P <0.01), back (β = 0.037, P <0.001) and hind (β = 0.040, P <0.001) muscle atrophy scores. PPID-positive horses (n = 4) had higher muscle atrophy scores than PPID-negative horses (n = 23), even after adjusting for age (P <0.05). This data suggests that neck, back and hind region evaluations by individual raters likely have acceptable reliability. In addition, these findings support further evaluation of the potential benefits of the MASS to identify and monitor muscle atrophy in horses.
KW - Age
KW - Atrophy
KW - Horse
KW - Muscle
KW - PPID
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jevs.2021.103771
DO - 10.1016/j.jevs.2021.103771
M3 - Article
C2 - 34973594
AN - SCOPUS:85120647471
SN - 0737-0806
VL - 110
JO - Journal of Equine Veterinary Science
JF - Journal of Equine Veterinary Science
M1 - 103771
ER -