title: A sensitive and reliable test instrument to assess swimming in rats with spinal cord injury.
abstract: For clinical translation of experimental spinal cord injury (SCI) research, evaluation of animal SCI models should include several sensorimotor functions. Validated and reliable assessment tools should be applicable to a wide range of injury severity. The BBB scale is the most widely used test instrument, but similar to most others it is used to assess open field ambulation. We have developed an assessment tool for swimming in rats with SCI, with high discriminative power and sensitivity to functional recovery after mild and severe injuries, without need for advanced test equipment. We studied various parameters of swimming in four groups of rats with thoracic SCI of different severity and a control group, for 8 weeks after surgery. Six parameters were combined in a multiple item scale, the Karolinska Institutet Swim Assessment Tool (KSAT). KSAT scores for all SCI groups showed consistent functional improvement after injury, and significant differences between the five experimental groups. The internal consistency, the inter-rater and the test-retest reliability were very high. The KSAT score was highly correlated to the cross-section area of white matter spared at the injury epicenter. Importantly, even after 8 weeks of recovery the KSAT score reliably discriminated normal animals from those inflicted by the mildest injury, and also displayed the recovery of the most severely injured rats. We conclude that this swim scale is an efficient and reliable tool to assess motor activity during swimming, and an important addition to the methods available for evaluating rat models of SCI.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurodegeneration, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurodegeneration, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Stockholms Sjukhem Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Elisabet
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Åkesson
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurodegeneration, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Lena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Holmberg
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurodegeneration, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Stockholms Sjukhem Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: erik.sundstrom@ki.se.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sundström
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D020127:Recovery of Function; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000473:pathology; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology; D013904:Thoracic Vertebrae; D014741:Video Recording
keywords: Functional assessment; Motor performance; Spinal cord injury; Swimming