Quantitative gait analysis of long-term locomotion deficits in classical unilateral striatal intracerebral hemorrhage rat model

Abstract

Gait analysis is a systematic collection of quantitative information on bodily movements during locomotion. Gait analysis has been employed clinically in stroke patients for their rehabilitation planning. In animal studies, gait analysis has been employed for the assessment of their locomotive disturbances in ischemic stroke, spinal cord injury and Parkinson's disease. The aims of the work reported here were to identify the gait parameters, collected from the computer-generated CatWalk System, that change after unilateral intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in the acute stage and long term up to 56 days post-ICH. The results showed that with the collagenase-induced unilateral striatal lesion, the rats displayed a significant contralateral decrease in print and maximum contact area and paw intensity, a diagonal increase in the stance duration of the left front and right hind paws, a significant decrease in the stride length of all four limbs, and foot pattern instability as reflected by the base of support, support on styles, and cadence. These deficits, including those in print area, stance and pressure, were demonstrated throughout the long-term period following ICH. The correlations between the gait parameters, lesion volume and asymmetrical forelimb use were also reported in this paper. This work has provided a systematic description on gait parameters in the classical striatal ICH model, which might become an essential assessment tool in future studies of pathophysiology and the development of novel treatments for experimental unilateral intracerebral hemorrhage with gait deficits.

Multimodality MRI assessment of grey and white matter injury and blood-brain barrier disruption after intracerebral haemorrhage in mice

“…Brain tissue loss is common in ICH models15171928293031. Most previous MRI studies have focused only on hemispheric brain tissue loss1928293031 rather than atrophy in different brain regions.…”

“…Most previous MRI studies have focused only on hemispheric brain tissue loss1928293031 rather than atrophy in different brain regions. However, histology results show that brain atrophy occurs in several brain regions, including cortex1532 and striatum19, and results in ventricular enlargement28.…”

Gait analysis in three different 6-hydroxydopamine rat models of Parkinson's disease

“…Similarly we also found that a reduction in paw pressure and print area of paw contact in the affected limbs was due to unilateral dopamine deficiency. This was most likely because of the rigidity of muscle tone and altered use of paw surface in the lesioned side [19].…”

Xenon Improves Neurologic Outcome and Reduces Secondary Injury Following Trauma in an In Vivo Model of Traumatic Brain Injury*

“…Studies using analysis of gait in TBI patients have revealed deficits compared to healthy controls. The CatWalk-XT gait-analysis system has been used to measure deficits in a variety of rodent brain-injury models [65][66][67][68]. Gait analysis one month after injury revealed significant (p<0.05) deficits in the TBI group, in locomotor speed and in the swing speed of all four limbs.…”