Equine Sports Medicine and Surgery provides the most up-to-date, in-depth coverage of the basic and clinical sciences required for management of the equine athlete. The unique treatment of exercise physiology and training within a clinical context, together with detailed review of all diseases affecting athletic horses, makes this the most comprehensive text available.The book will provide a thorough grounding in the basic physiology of each body system, and in particular the responses of each body system to exercise and training, that will be separate, but highly relevant to, the succeeding sections on clinical disorders of each body system. The highly respected editors have brought together an internationally renowned team of 50 contributors, producing the ultimate reference for veterinarians, students, horse-owners, and all those involved in the world of equine athletics. High quality artwork, including relevant radiographic, ultrasonographic, CAT scan, and MRI images, aid understanding and diagnosis Provides a truly international perspective, including guidelines pertinent to different geographic areas, and racing jurisdictions In-depth coverage of the role of the veterinarian in the management of athletic horses Explores the use of complementary therapies ~

Superficial digital flexor tendon injury is common in athletic horses. Recovery requires balancing rest and controlled exercise, resulting in high risk of reinjury. It is difficult to determine the level of work the damaged tissue can sustain based on serial ultrasound examination alone. Because small changes in sonographic appearance are associated with large changes in biomechanical strength, it is difficult to accurately determine the degree of loading an injured tendon can sustain. Acoustoelastography (AEG), is a new ultrasound-based tissue property evaluation technique for tendons. AEG determines stiffness gradient, the rate of change of normalized stiffness as a function of strain, by analyzing the changes in echo intensity observed in cine loops captured from gradually deforming tendon. Further, stiffness generally correlates with strength, so stiffness changes provide a useful functional metric. The central hypothesis of this dissertation is that AEG is able to detect differences in stiffness between normal and injured equine SDFT in-vitro and in-vivo. The studies presented in this dissertation demonstrate that the elastic strain limit, in the equine SDFT is ~6%. AEG can detect changes in biomechanical properties in-vitro once damage has occurred. AEG can be applied in-vivo to measure stiffness in SDFT's in clinically normal horses. AEG measurement by a novice operators is as reliable as measurement by an experienced operator. However, sedation of the horse does affect AEG; therefore, the sedation regimen needs to be consistent during serial examination of a patient. Finally, we demonstrated that AEG is able to detect the loss in stiffness in equine SDFT associated with injury with 91.9% sensitivity and 81.6% specificity. In addition, AEG is also able to identify increases in stiffness during healing. This dissertation suggests that AEG is a promising new imaging technology that can be used for the non-invasive evaluation of equine SDFT injury. Use of AEG can improve detection, monitoring and treatment of tendon injury and may ultimately shorten healing time. The findings of this dissertation will be used as the bases for future research and clinical studies to refine the technology and to investigate the use of AEG in other tendons.