Laminitis has long been known as a condition in horses that can result from carbohydrate overload, among other causes, but it can also result from endocrine gland dysfunction; this is known as endocrinopathic laminitis. Equine Cushing’s disease (also known as pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction, or PPID) and equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) are two conditions that have been linked with endocrinopathic laminitis. According to one group of researchers, this condition might be more common in horses affected by endocrine disease than once believed.

"Despite gastrointestinal and inflammatory forms of laminitis being the focus of laminitis research to date, there is evidence from a large epidemiologic study across the U.S. that these are the least common forms of naturally occurring laminitis reported by horse owners." said Ninja Karikoski, DVM, lead researcher on the study.

Karikoski, who hails from the Equine Teaching Hospital at the University of Helsinki, Finland, Faculty of Veterinary Science, also noted that "endocrinopathic laminitis seems to be more common in certain breeds such as ponies, and it may be somehow hereditary too."

In their study the team evaluated 36 horses with clinical signs of laminitis brought to the university’s Equine Teaching Hospital between April 2007 and August 2008. The team’s goal was twofold: to determine if endocrine gland dysfunction was present in these horses, and to compare the age, breed, and sex of the laminitic horses with 374 nonlaminitic horses without endocrine disease brought to the hospital during the same period