Combination of kinematic analyses and diffusion tensor tractrography to evaluate the residual motor functions in spinal cord-hemisected monkeys.

BACKGROUND

Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes loss of locomotor functions. Nowadays, the relationship between the residual locomotion after SCI and the diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) results still remains unclear.

METHODS

Four rhesus monkeys were suffered thoracic cord hemisection. Kinematic evaluation and DTT were performed prior- and post-SCI (6 and 12 weeks). The longitudinal changes of gait parameters and the DTT parameters were analyzed for the injury-contralateral hindlimb. The correlations between gaits and DTT parameters were also investigated.

RESULTS

Almost gait parameters significantly changed after SCI, meanwhile, the caudal-rostral connection rate of DTT showed negative correlation with all gait parameters, demonstrating that the locomotor changes of the injury-contralateral hindlimb were associated with the ratio of residual fibers.

CONCLUSIONS

The combinatory use of gait analysis and DTT has been demonstrated to be sensitive to locomotion changes after SCI, and may therefore have potential applications in the pre-clinical studies of SCI.