Functional gait analysis in a spinal contusion rat model.

Evaluating functional performance of spinal cord injury (SCI) rat models is essential for the development of novel treatments and breakthroughs. However, due to the variety of functional analysis methods available - each with its own strengths and weaknesses - it can be challenging to choose the most appropriate functional analysis test for the animal model. Therefore, we analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of five methods in order to determine which test is not only accurate and easily reproducible, but also relatively inexpensive so that it can be adopted universally.