Post-traumatic fetlock osteoarthritis in Standardbred racehorses: The culprit of long-term progression to degenerative joint disease?

Osteoarthritis (OA) begins many years before structural changes are detectable, since DJD spans over a lifetime in man. In racehorses progression from post-traumatic OA stage to DJD seems much shorter. The purpose of this study was to assess changes in inflammatory and structural biomarkers in serum (S) and synovial fluid (SF) in a cohort of STBRs diagnosed with post-traumatic fetlock OA over the racing career of the animals. We hypothesised that biomarkers assay could demonstrate the progression of degenerative status in the joints after post-traumatic OA, better than clinical and radiographic assessment.