title: Evaluation of experimental spinal cord injury by measuring spontaneous spinal cord potentials.
abstract: The relationship between the spontaneous spinal electrogram and the degree of spinal cord injury was studied in anesthetic-free, surgically decerebrate cats that received experimental blunt trauma by the graded weight-drop method. It was found that the characteristic spontaneous slow negative potential of the spinal electrogram showed a frequency dependency that correlated positively with the intensity of the injury (impulse expressed in gm-sec). Graphs of the frequency of occurrence of the slow negative potentials as a function of time following initial injury indicated that both the slope and shape of the curve were dependent on the severity of the injury measured in gm-sec at the time of the injury and confirmed histologically. These results indicate that the spontaneous spinal electrogram may serve as a sensitive indicator of the degree of spinal cord injury and may be useful in the assessment of various treatment modalities.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D004525:Efferent Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008564:Membrane Potentials; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*