Providing the clinical basis for new interventional therapies: refined diagnosis and assessment of recovery after spinal cord injury

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Abstract
Today, there is accumulating evidence from animal experiments that axonal regeneration and an enhanced level of functional repair can be induced after a spinal cord injury (SCI). Consequently, in the near future, new therapeutic approaches will be developed for the treatment of patients with SCI. The aim of the project presented here is to provide the required clinical basis for the implementation of novel interventional therapies. Refined and combined clinical and neurophysiological measures are needed for a precise qualitative and quantitative assessment of spinal cord function in patients with SCI at an early stage. This represents a basic requirement to recognise any improvement in the recovery of function and to monitor any significant effect of a new treatment. To this aim, five European Spinal Cord Injury Centres involved in the rehabilitation of acute SCI patients have built up a close clinical collaboration to develop a standardised protocol for the assessment of the outcome after SCI and the extent of recovery achieved by actually applied therapies in a larger population of SCI patients. The project's aim is to establish objective, refined tools as a basis for monitoring the effects of new treatment strategies.