Clinical Research Abstracts of the British Equine Veterinary Association Congress 2015.

Reasons for Performing Study: A quantifiable measure of muscle activity related to the cervical spine may provide further understanding and evidence based support for chiropractic techniques. Surface electromyography (sEMG) is a noninvasive method of measuring muscle activity of the splenius muscle when the horse is at rest.
Objectives: To determine if there is a relationship between objective measurable muscle parameters and misalignments and muscle tension in the equine cervical spine.
Study Design: Controlled paired randomised study.
Methods: Privately owned horses (n = 14), of mixed sex, age and mean height 157.8 cm were selected and assigned a group by matching work, management regime, age, sex and breed. The treatment group (n = 7) underwent manual chiropractic treatment following palpation. The control group underwent palpation only. A Delsys 4 sensor system was used for data collection. Probes were positioned on the muscle halfway between C1/C2 joint and the crest on the left and right sides, between the tendon insertion and the motor point to maximise signals. sEMG readings were taken at immediately before (0) and after palpation (PP) and 30 min later (30). Data were tested for normality and variance by one-way ANOVA and paired t test.
Results: Post treatment, there was a significant decrease (P<0.01) in sEMG activity for treatment group at 0 to 30 and PP to 30. There was a significant decrease (P<0.05) in sEMG for right side for treatment group at 0 to 30 and PP to 30. There were no such significant effects for the control group. The majority (83%) of horses had atlas rotation and tilt to the right.
Conclusions: This preliminary study supports use of sEMG as a means of assessing muscle activity of equines and suggests a statistically significant reduction in splenius muscle activity is observed following manual chiropractic treatment although the benefit to the horse is unknown. Ethical animal research: The study protocol was reviewed by the College Research Ethics Committee before commencement of the study. Owners gave informed consent for their horses' inclusion in the study.
Source of Funding: McTimoney College of Chiropractic assisted with the hiring of the equipment. Competing interests: None declared.
(© 2015 The Author(s). Equine Veterinary Journal © 2015 EVJ Ltd.)