Introduction on Assessments for Spinal Cord Injury

This chapter introduces the chapters of Part VIII, which describe a variety of assessment methods to determine the outcomes after spinal cord injury (SCI) in animal models. The SCI community should be encouraged by the view that SCI has certain advantages for translation of therapies in humans compared to other neurological conditions. The strengths and shortcomings of a number of assessment categories are discussed. These include characterization of the lesion size, spared tissue, inflammation, scarring, proliferation of oligodendrocyte precursors and vascular changes at the injury epicenter, as well as axonal tracing to identify neuron populations. Combined with behavioral analyses, these measures can be used to identify the role of degeneration, regeneration, and plasticity in the functional outcomes. Comments are made about the need of functional testing appropriate for the spinal level and type of injury, and several behavioral motor tests are discussed. The power and need for acute invasive and real-time noninvasive electrophysiology and physiological measurements are also highlighted. Methods for important, clinically relevant, noninvasive imaging are also discussed, as well as the fact that few groups are in a position to use them regularly. Finally, the sparse attention that functions other than locomotor function have received is noted.