Abstract
(1) Background: Postural sway is frequently used to quantify human postural control, balance, injury, and neurological deficits. However, there is considerably less research investigating the value of the metric in horses. Much of the existing equine postural sway research uses force or pressure plates to examine the centre of pressure, inferring change at the centre of mass (COM). This study looks at the inverse, using an inertial measurement unit (IMU) on the withers to investigate change at the COM, exploring the potential of postural sway evaluation in the applied domain. (2) Methods: The lipopolysaccharide model was used to induce transient bilateral lameness in seven equines. Horses were monitored intermittently by a withers fixed IMU over seven days. (3) Results: There was a significant effect of time on total protein, carpal circumference, and white blood cell count in the horses, indicating the presence of, and recovery from, inflammation. There was a greater amplitude of displacement in the craniocaudal (CC) versus the mediolateral (ML) direction. A significant difference was observed in the amplitude of displacement in the ML direction between 4–12 h and 168 h. (4) Conclusions: The significant reduction in ML displacement during the acute inflammation period alongside greater overall CC displacement may be a compensatory behaviour for bilateral lameness.
Highlights
Comparison of several acceleration signals during quiet standing with simultaneous video footage of the horses demonstrated that it is not feasible to classify the different movements that occur during stationary periods according to acceleration ranges
There was a significant effect of time on change in carpal circumference, white blood cell count, and total protein resulting from induced bilateral lameness, indicating that there was carpal joint inflammation present at the acute stage that returned to normal levels by the end of the study
This research demonstrates the basic capabilities of postural sway monitoring using a singular inertial sensor unit
Summary
PS is thought to provide information regarding postural control, i.e., the ability to maintain the body’s centre of mass (COM) within the base of support using somatosensory, vestibular, and visual sensory networks [3,4,5]. Perturbations such as visual occlusion have been reported to increase sway by up to 50% [6] while various standing tasks are used to assess balance deficits [7]. COP-COM is the scalar distance between the two variables at any given time, which is proportional to the horizontal acceleration of COM [12]. Postural sway captured during periods of quiet standing is a quantifiable movement metric that has been used extensively to classify health, aging, and disease-related changes in humans for over three decades [1,5,13,14]
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