Radiographic measures of the pelvis differ in British shorthair cats with dystocia and eutocia

Davut Koca, Osman Yilmaz, Talha Avcilar

Background: The authors investigated the differences in radiographic measures of the pelvis between British Shorthair (BS) cats with dystocia and eutocia. They hypothesized that cats with dystocia would have smaller and narrower pelvises than cats with eutocia.

Study: The authors used a retrospective, observational design to analyze the radiographic images of 30 BS cats (15 with dystocia and 15 with eutocia) that were brought to a private veterinary clinic in Turkey. They measured various pelvimetric parameters, such as linear distances, angles, areas, and ratios, and compared them between the two groups using statistical tests.

Methods: The authors obtained ventrodorsal and laterolateral radiographic images of the pelvis of each cat using a standardized protocol. They used electronic calipers and open-source image analysis software to perform the morphometric measurements. They used Shapiro–Wilk, skewness–kurtosis, and independent T-tests to analyze the data and determine the significance of the differences.

Results: The authors found that most of the pelvimetric values, except the pelvis length, were significantly higher in cats with eutocia than in cats with dystocia. They also found that the pelvic inlet area and the pelvic outlet area were significantly larger in cats with eutocia. Additionally, they found that the pelvic inclination and the ischiatic arch angles were significantly greater in cats with eutocia. The authors also reported the mean, standard deviation, median, minimum, and maximum values of each measurement for both groups.

Limitations: The authors acknowledged that their study had some limitations, such as the small sample size, the lack of data on other ages and breeds of cats, and the use of only radiographic images as the imaging modality. They suggested that future studies could use advanced imaging techniques, such as CT or MRI, or 3D reconstructions to obtain more accurate and detailed measurements of the pelvis.

Conclusions: The authors concluded that their study supported their hypothesis and revealed significant differences in the pelvimetric values between BS cats with dystocia and eutocia. They stated that these basic morphometric data could benefit veterinarians in clinical practice areas such as surgery, pathology, reproduction, and gynecology, especially in the interpretation of radiological images of the pelvis of cats in comparable conditions.

Disclaimer: The summary generated in this email was created by an AI large language model. Therefore errors may occur. Reading the article is the best way to understand the scholarly work. The figure presented here remains the property of the publisher or author and subject to the applicable copyright agreement. It is reproduced here as an educational work. If you have any questions or concerns about the work presented here, reply to this email.