Fig. 3.

Clinical scoring and gait analysis in LRMD dogs. GRMD dogs are represented in grey, and LRMD dogs in black. a longitudinal evolution of the clinical score during disease progression. The clinical score was low at the age of two months in both colonies, thereafter it rapidly increased to roughly stabilise after the age of 8 months; this indicates that there is rapid disease progression during the first months of life. From 2 to 4 months, all animals showed rapid worsening of clinical signs, with a tendency towards more homogeneous evolution of LRMD dogs. From 4 months of age onwards, the clinical evolution of the animals became more heterogeneous, with two dogs presenting more severe phenotype, and one animal presenting milder phenotype. At later stages, the clinical scores of LRMD dogs were higher than those of GRMD dogs. This was confirmed by comparing adult dogs. b comparison of clinical scores in adult LRMD vs. GRMD dogs. The clinical scores obtained in adult, clinically stabilised LRMD dogs were significantly higher than those observed in GRMD dogs (p = 0.005), suggesting that adult LRMD dogs were globally more affected than GRMD dogs. c, d longitudinal follow-up of 3 LRMD dogs during the progressive phase of the disease. The white and grey areas, respectively, represent the mean ± 1 SD of healthy dogs and GRMD dogs; the black curves represent the individual evolution of each of the three LRMD dogs. c Evolution of total power from the age of 2 to the age of 9 months. Two among the three LRMD dogs had markedly decreased total power values, the levels observed were comparable to those observed in GRMD dogs. The third animal (LRMD14) exhibited rather preserved total power values, especially in the second part of the follow-up, from the age of 6.5 months onwards, where some values overlapped with those of healthy dogs. d Evolution of the relative medio-lateral power from the age of 2 to the age of 9 months. Two among the three LRMD dogs showed a dramatic increase of their medio-lateral relative power with age and disease progression, while the third dog (LRMD14) maintained normal values throughout the follow-up period. e Projection of 4 adult LRMD dogs as supplementary individuals on a PCA (principal component analysis) plane built with adult healthy and GRMD dogs as active individuals. Healthy and GRMD populations are well separated and LRMD dogs appear in the cloud of GRMD dogs. The straight lines represent the projection of variables. The dystrophic population was separated from the healthy population mainly by decreased total power, stride length and frequency, and increased medio-lateral power. MLP/TP medio-lateral power/total power, DVP/TP dorso-ventral power/total power, CCP/TP cranio-caudal power/total power, HW height at withers