Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE
-
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a debilitating neurological condition characterized by somatic and autonomic dysfunctions. In particular, SCI above the mid-thoracic level can lead to a potentially life-threatening hypertensive condition called autonomic dysreflexia (AD) that is often triggered by noxious or non-noxious somatic or visceral stimuli below the level of injury. ⋯ The software is able to apply a pattern recognition algorithm on hemodynamic data such as systolic blood pressure (SBP) and heart rate (HR) extracted from telemetry recordings of conscious and unrestrained animals before and after thoracic (T3) complete transection. With this software, hemodynamic parameters and episodes of AD are able to be detected and analyzed with minimal experimenter bias.
-
Approximately 8% of stroke patients present symptoms of central post-stroke pain (CPSP). CPSP is associated with allodynia and hypersensitivity to nociceptive stimuli. ⋯ The [(14)C]-IAP method in rats is less expensive to perform compared with other brain mapping techniques. The present [(14)C]-IAP protocol is used to measure the activation of neural substrates that are involved in CPSP that is induced by lesions of the ventral basal nucleus (VB) of the thalamus in a rodent model.