Objective: To determine the accuracy of neurologic data, survey radiographic results, or both for localization of the site of thoracolumbar intervertebral disk herniation in dogs.
Sample: 338 dogs with surgically confirmed intervertebral disk herniation from disk spaces T10-11 to L6-7.
Procedures: Medical records and archived survey radiographs were reviewed for each case. Data were analyzed with multivariable logistic regression models. Three models were fit to develop subsets of the data consisting of survey radiographic data, neurologic examination data, and a combination of survey radiographic and neurologic examination data. The resulting models were validated by evaluating predictive performance against a validation subset of the data.
Results: Models incorporating survey radiographic data and a combination of survey radiographic and neurologic data had similar predictive ability and performed better than the model based solely on neurologic data but resulted in substantial errors in predictions.
Conclusions and clinical relevance: A combination of neurologic examination data as recorded in the medical records and radiographic data did not enhance predictive performance of multivariable logistic regression models over models limited to radiographic data. Neurologic and radiographic findings should not be used to completely exclude areas in an abnormal spinal cord region from further evaluation with advanced imaging.