Dear Mr. Bates,
We reviewed this case at your request. First: The films were labeled correctly as belonging to DOINDOGS BEE-- Donald Bates. This is assurance that there was no mix-up with any other dog at the practice that may have had a PENNHIP exam that same day. There is 'textbook' evidence of bilateral cavitation.
Here are comments on each of the 3 views we evaluate which I've placed in bold underlined print . The comments below will not be sufficient if you are considering breeding the dog, however, since there are no valid Distraction Indices (DI), which are the most important aspect of the PennHIP screening test. This screening test assesses future RISK for getting arthritis, which is the painful hallmark of Hip Dysplasia. In order to be considered a good breeding candidate, official DI's must be measured and fall into the' better half 'of Labrador statistics (# 22,313 as of March 2012) in our database. Without [non-cavitated] DI's, this is not possible.
We empathize because we understand you live 8 hours from Dr. Wing's hospital and wanted any other useful info we could provide. We can tell you with certainty that the PennHIP technique by Dr. Wing on the Distraction view was excellent, there were no problems with the positioning or the several other aspects we evaluate.
We have learned from our research that some dogs just seem to be more prone to cavitation, which is a formation of nitrogen bubbles in the joint, such as what occurs when a person cracks their knuckles. It is harmless but the bubbles make the hip measure artificially worse than the real laxity for a dog. That is why we cannot give Distraction Indices on cavitated hips. (It's an inaccurate and unfairly looser reading than what the genes dictate) Since cavitation can cause such a large range of falsely looser DI readings from a very small amount to a very large amount, we cannot tell what the real DI's would be on BEE.
Another film we evaluate is the Hip-Extended view (in USA is known as the OFA view). We include this view because it is the best position to determine the presence of existing arthritis, or DJD--Degenerative Joint Disease. "BEE" shows no signs of existing DJD. But since we cannot know the true laxity readings due to cavitation on both hips, we cannot even hazard a guess as to the future risk of getting DJD. We must see the DI's to assess this risk.
We evaluate the Compression view for its congruence of hip fit, i.e. the ball into the socket. BEE'S hips fit very congruently and nicely into the sockets. When a dog has DJD, the congruence of the fit is very poor, so this is another corroborating piece of evidence that there is no present DJD on BEE.
I hope this answers your questions as there is no other information possible at this time. We thank you for using PennHIP, even though in your case it was not a successful outcome. To inform you of a statistic from our research, bilateral cavitation is extremely small at 0.27%. The study we [PennHIP] did in 1997 showed only 18 instances of bilateral cavitation out of 6,649 dogs
If you agree to allow a repeat exam, Dr Wing has received an instruction sheet that will help to minimize the chances of it happening again, but as mentioned above, we have seen cases that are just very prone to this phenomenon and it could occur again, but not likely.
Best regards,
Pamela McKelvie, VMD
PennHIP (University of Penn. Hip Improvement Program)
*used with permission
