Neurophysiological Characterization of a Non-Human Primate Model of Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury Utilizing Fine-Wire EMG Electrodes

This study aims to characterize traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) neurophysiologically using an intramuscular fine-wire electromyography (EMG) electrode pair. EMG data were collected from an agonist-antagonist pair of tail muscles of Macaca fasicularis, pre- and post-lesion, and for a treatment and control group. The EMG signals were decomposed into multi-resolution subsets using wavelet transforms (WT), then the relative power (RP) was calculated for each individual reconstructed EMG sub-band. Linear mixed models were developed to test three hypotheses: (i) asymmetrical volitional activity of left and right side tail muscles (ii) the effect of the experimental TSCI on the frequency content of the EMG signal, (iii) and the effect of an experimental treatment. The results from the electrode pair data suggested that there is asymmetry in the EMG response of the left and right side muscles (p-value < 0.001). This is consistent with the construct of limb dominance. The results also suggest that the lesion resulted in clear changes in the EMG frequency distribution in the post-lesion period with a significant increment in the low-frequency sub-bands (D4, D6, and A6) of the left and right side, also a significant reduction in the high-frequency sub-bands (D1 and D2) of the right side (p-value < 0.001). The preliminary results suggest that using the RP of the EMG data, the fine-wire intramuscular EMG electrode pair are a suitable method of monitoring and measuring treatment effects of experimental treatments for spinal cord injury (SCI).

Download Full-text

Zinc Concentration Dynamics Indicate Neurological Impairment Odds after Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury

Antioxidants ◽

10.3390/antiox9050421 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. 421

Author(s):

Raban Arved Heller ◽

André Sperl ◽

Julian Seelig ◽

Patrick Haubruck ◽

Tobias Bock ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Spinal Cord ◽

Spinal Cord Injury ◽

Neurological Impairment ◽

Sensory Function ◽

Control Group ◽

Binary Logistic Regression Analysis ◽

Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury ◽

Zn Concentration ◽

Cord Injury ◽

Serum Zn

Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury (TSCI) is debilitating and often results in a loss of motor and sensory function caused by an interwoven set of pathological processes. Oxidative stress and inflammatory processes are amongst the critical factors in the secondary injury phase after TSCI. The essential trace element Zinc (Zn) plays a crucial role during this phase as part of the antioxidant defense system. The study aims to determine dynamic patterns in serum Zn concentration in patients with TSCI and test for a correlation with neurological impairment. A total of 42 patients with TSCI were enrolled in this clinical observational study. Serum samples were collected at five different points in time after injury (at admission, and after 4 h, 9 h, 12 h, 24 h, and 3 days). The analysis of the serum Zn concentrations was conducted by total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF). The patients were divided into two groups—a study group S (n = 33) with neurological impairment, including patients with remission (G1, n = 18) and no remission (G0, n = 15) according to a positive AIS (American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale) conversion within 3 months after the trauma; and a control group C (n = 9), consisting of subjects with vertebral fractures without neurological impairment. The patient data and serum concentrations were examined and compared by non-parametric test methods to the neurological outcome. The median Zn concentrations in group S dropped within the first 9 h after injury (964 µg/L at admission versus 570 µg/L at 9 h, p < 0.001). This decline was stronger than in control subjects (median of 751 µg/L versus 729 µg/L, p = 0.023). A binary logistic regression analysis including the difference in serum Zn concentration from admission to 9 h after injury yielded an area under the curve (AUC) of 82.2% (CI: 64.0–100.0%) with respect to persistent neurological impairment. Early Zn concentration dynamics differed in relation to the outcome and may constitute a helpful diagnostic indicator for patients with spinal cord trauma. The fast changes in serum Zn concentrations allow an assessment of neurological impairment risk on the first day after trauma. This finding supports strategies for improving patient care by avoiding strong deficits via adjuvant nutritive measures, e.g., in unresponsive patients after trauma.

Download Full-text

Comparison study of classification methods of intramuscular electromyography data for non-human primate model of traumatic spinal cord injury

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part H Journal of Engineering in Medicine ◽

10.1177/0954411920935741 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 234 (9) ◽

pp. 955-965

Author(s):

Farah Masood ◽

Maisha Farzana ◽

Shanker Nesathurai ◽

Hussein A. Abdullah

Keyword(s):

Spinal Cord ◽

Spinal Cord Injury ◽

Time Domain ◽

Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury ◽

Primate Model ◽

Cord Injury ◽

Left And Right ◽

Electromyography Signals ◽

F Measure ◽

Human Primate

Traumatic spinal cord injury is a serious neurological disorder. Patients experience a plethora of symptoms that can be attributed to the nerve fiber tracts that are compromised. This includes limb weakness, sensory impairment, and truncal instability, as well as a variety of autonomic abnormalities. This article will discuss how machine learning classification can be used to characterize the initial impairment and subsequent recovery of electromyography signals in an non-human primate model of traumatic spinal cord injury. The ultimate objective is to identify potential treatments for traumatic spinal cord injury. This work focuses specifically on finding a suitable classifier that differentiates between two distinct experimental stages (pre-and post-lesion) using electromyography signals. Eight time-domain features were extracted from the collected electromyography data. To overcome the imbalanced dataset issue, synthetic minority oversampling technique was applied. Different ML classification techniques were applied including multilayer perceptron, support vector machine, K-nearest neighbors, and radial basis function network; then their performances were compared. A confusion matrix and five other statistical metrics (sensitivity, specificity, precision, accuracy, and F-measure) were used to evaluate the performance of the generated classifiers. The results showed that the best classifier for the left- and right-side data is the multilayer perceptron with a total F-measure of 79.5% and 86.0% for the left and right sides, respectively. This work will help to build a reliable classifier that can differentiate between these two phases by utilizing some extracted time-domain electromyography features.

Download Full-text

Up-regulation of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) following traumatic spinal cord injury

Neuroscience Research ◽

10.1016/s0168-0102(00)81546-1 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 38 ◽

pp. S117

Author(s):

K Kiuchi

Keyword(s):

Spinal Cord ◽

Spinal Cord Injury ◽

Cell Line ◽

Glial Cell ◽

Neurotrophic Factor ◽

Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury ◽

Cord Injury

Download Full-text

Surgical Decompression and Methylprednisolone in the Treatment of Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury - What are the Evidences? Review of the Literature

Journal of Neurological Surgery Part A Central European Neurosurgery ◽

10.1055/s-0034-1382247 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 75 (S 01) ◽

Author(s):

Toma Spiriev ◽

Lili Laleva ◽

Y. Enchev

Keyword(s):

Spinal Cord ◽

Spinal Cord Injury ◽

Surgical Decompression ◽

Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury ◽

Review Of The Literature ◽

Cord Injury

Download Full-text

Neurological Recovery in Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury Patient with Delayed Surgical Intervention

Neurologico Spinale Medico Chirurgico ◽

10.15562/nsmc.v1i2.112 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 34

Author(s):

Mochamad Targib Alatas

Keyword(s):

Spinal Cord ◽

Spinal Cord Injury ◽

Surgical Intervention ◽

Case Series ◽

Spinal Cord Injury Patient ◽

Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury ◽

Best Interest ◽

Score Improvement ◽

Cord Injury ◽

Injury Patient

Early surgical treatment for traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) patients has been proven to yield better improvement on neurological state, and widely practiced among surgeons in this field. However, it is not always affordable in every clinical setting. It is undeniable that surgery for chronic SCI has more challenges as the malunion of vertebral bones might have initiated, thus requires more complex operating techniques. In this case series, we report 7 patients with traumatic SCI whose surgical intervention is delayed due to several reasons. Initial motoric scores vary from 0 to 3, all have their interval periods supervised between outpatient clinic visits. On follow up they demonstrate significant neurological development defined by at least 2 grades motoric score improvement. Physical rehabilitation also began before surgery was conducted. These results should encourage surgeons to keep striving for the patient’s best interest, even when the injury has taken place weeks or even months before surgery is feasible because clinical improvement for these patients is not impossible.

Download Full-text