Author(s)

Nitin Seth¹, Farah Masood¹, John B. Sledge², William A. Graham^3,4, Douglas L. Rosene⁵, Susan Westmoreland⁶, Shiela Macri⁶, Ervin Sejdic⁷, Amber Hoggatt⁶, Heather Simmons⁸, Hussein A. Abdullah¹, Shanker Nesathurai^3,4,8,9

¹School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada.
²Lafayette Bone and Joint Clinic, Lafayette, USA.
³Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.
⁴Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, Canada.
⁵Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, USA.
⁶New England Primate Research Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.
⁷Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA.
⁸Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA.
⁹Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Hamilton Health Sciences, Hamilton, Canada.

A valid non human primate model of traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) is essential to evaluate and develop new treatments. In previous experiments, it has been demonstrated that a transmitter can be implanted in the macaque fasicularis monkey that measures electromyographic data from the musculature of the tail. As well, previous experiments have demonstrated that selective lesions can be created in the lower thoracic spinal cord that does not cause limb weakness and/or bowel dysfunction. The histopathological features of these lesions appear similar to human TSCI. This paper describes a method by which the EMG data can be transformed into a quantitative metric of volitional limb movement (“Q”). This metric permits an objective assessment of injury, natural recovery as well as potential efficacy of candidate treatments.

Spinal Cord Injury, Animal Model, Electromyography

Seth, N. , Masood, F. , Sledge, J. , Graham, W. , Rosene, D. , Westmoreland, S. , Macri, S. , Sejdic, E. , Hoggatt, A. , Simmons, H. , Abdullah, H. and Nesathurai, S. (2015) Humane Non-Human Primate Model of Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury: Quantitative Analysis of Electromyographic Data. Open Journal of Veterinary Medicine, 5, 161-168. doi: 10.4236/ojvm.2015.57022.