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closeQuestion on diagnosis of HD
Posted by adavidson on 16 Apr 2016 at 16:11 GMT
How do the authors account for the fact that the diagnosis of hip dysplasia was made in dogs who were clinically lame and the lack of hip dysplasia not proven by normal radiographs in dogs who were not clinically lame? This seems an undeniable bias. I also wonder how the authors accounted for the fact that breeders select against using dogs known to produce cancer when making breeding decisions. Thus pups from a line known to have an increased incidence of LSA would tend to be neutered and not put back into breeding programs (and hence kept intact).This seems another bias in the study. Thank you.
RE: Question on diagnosis of HD
blhart replied to adavidson on 16 Apr 2016 at 18:56 GMT
If I understand the question, you are asking why we did not have hip radiographs on all dogs and make a determination of HD based on the radiographs. The answer is that hip radiographs are not done routinely on dogs; there needs to be a reason. We use the medical records on the cases. Using the epidemiological approach for the study removes the issue of bias, based on diagnostic criteria. We have followed the same procedure in the second study on Goldens and Labs published in this journal.
With regard to LSA, few of the dogs in the database are from breeders specifying that the dogs were neutered for the reason you cite. Most dogs are neutered regardless of breed line. Intact dogs are generally not intended for breeding; its the owner's decision.