Femoral Neck Thickness Index as an Indicator of Proximal Femur Bone Modeling

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Canine hip dysplasia development results in femoral neck modeling and an increase in thickness. The main objective of this work was to describe a femoral neck thickness index to quantify femoral neck width and to study its association with the degree of canine hip dysplasia using the Fédération Cynologique Internationale scoring scheme. A total of 53 dogs (106 hips) were randomly selected for this study. Two examiners performed femoral neck thickness index estimation to study intra- and inter-examiner reliability and agreement. Statistical analysis tests showed excellent agreement and reliability between the measurements of the two examiners and the examiners’ sessions. All joints were scored in five categories by an experienced examiner according to the Fédération Cynologique Internationale criteria, and the results from examiner 1 were compared between these categories. The comparison of mean femoral neck thickness index between hip dysplasia categories using the analysis of variance test showed significant differences between groups. These results show that femoral neck thickness index is a parameter capable of evaluating proximal femur bone modeling and that it has the potential to enrich conventional canine hip dysplasia scoring criteria if incorporated into a computer-aided diagnosis software. ABSTRACT: The alteration in the shape of the femoral neck is an important radiographic sign for scoring canine hip dysplasia (CHD). Previous studies have reported that the femoral neck thickness (FNT) is greater in dogs with hip joint dysplasia, becoming progressively thicker with disease severity. The main objective of this work was to describe a femoral neck thickness index (FNTi) to quantify FNT and to study its association with the degree of CHD using the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI) scheme. A total of 53 dogs (106 hips) were randomly selected for this study. Two examiners performed FNTi estimation to study intra- and inter-examiner reliability and agreement. The paired t-test, the Bland-Altman plots, and the intraclass correlation coefficient showed excellent agreement and reliability between the measurements of the two examiners and the examiners’ sessions. All joints were scored in five categories by an experienced examiner according to FCI criteria. The results from examiner 1 were compared between FCI categories. Hips that were assigned an FCI grade of A (n = 19), B (n = 23), C (n = 24), D (n = 24), and E (n = 16) had a mean ± standard deviation FNTi of 0.809 ± 0.024, 0.835 ± 0.044, 0.868 ± 0.022, 0.903 ± 0.033, and 0.923 ± 0.068, respectively (ANOVA, p < 0.05). Therefore, these results show that FNTi is a parameter capable of evaluating proximal femur bone modeling and that it has the potential to enrich conventional CHD scoring criteria if incorporated into a computer-aided diagnosis capable of detecting CHD.