British Equine Veterinary Association Congress 2007

Here are the DSLD-ESPA session highlights presented at the 46th British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) congress, held in Edinburgh, Scotland in September 2007. You'll find this (and much much more) located at The Horse: http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=11043

"They found excessive amounts of proteoglycans in the suspensory ligament, superficial digital flexor tendon, and the patellar and nuchal ligaments (which lies in the neck near the withers)," said Schramme. "This study demonstrates that DSLD is a systemic disorder of all connective tissues and should be more appropriately named.

"They have set up a service where they encourage you to take a biopsy of the nuchal ligament," said Schramme. "Send it to their lab and they will get a response to you at a fairly quick turnaround time. We've used the service several times. It's something that we've used on occasion in that particular scenario, to decide whether to do a neurectomy. If they come back positive, we paint a pretty bleak picture and prognosis." Veterinarians can access the service at www.angelfire.com/bc/curlygait/biopsy.html.

McIlwraith observed, "It's almost like we have a storage disease of proteoglycans," also noting, "we're always behind our human counterparts in (understanding) connective tissue disease. Where does the accumulation of proteoglycans fit in as far as disease goes?"