Description and repeatability of a newly developed spinal cord injury scale for dogs.

Levine, Gwendolyn J; Levine, Jonathan M; Budke, Christine M; Kerwin, Sharon C; Au, Jennifer; Vinayak, Arathi; Hettlich, Bianca Felicitas; Slater, Margaret R (2009). Description and repeatability of a newly developed spinal cord injury scale for dogs. Preventive veterinary medicine, 89(1-2), pp. 121-127. Elsevier 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2009.02.016

Full text not available from this repository.

The objectives of this study were to describe a new spinal cord injury scale for dogs, evaluate repeatability through determining inter-rater variability of scores, compare these scores to another established system (a modified Frankel scale), and determine if the modified Frankel scale and the newly developed scale were useful as prognostic indicators for return to ambulation. A group of client-owned dogs with spinal cord injury were examined by 2 independent observers who applied the new Texas Spinal Cord Injury Score (TSCIS) and a modified Frankel scale that has been used previously. The newly developed scale was designed to describe gait, postural reactions and nociception in each limb. Weighted kappa statistics were utilized to determine inter-rater variability for the modified Frankel scale and individual components of the TSCIS. Comparisons were made between raters for the overall TSCIS score and between scales using Spearman's rho. An additional group of dogs with surgically treated thoracolumbar disk herniation was enrolled to look at correlation of both scores with spinal cord signal characteristics on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ambulatory outcome at discharge. The actual agreement between raters for the modified Frankel scale was 88%, with a weighted kappa value of 0.93. The TSCIS had weighted kappa scores for gait, proprioceptive positioning and nociception components that ranged from 0.72 to 0.94. Correlation between raters for the overall TSCIS score was Spearman's rho=0.99 (P<0.001). Comparison of the overall TSCIS score to the modified Frankel score resulted in a Spearman's rho value of 0.90 (P<0.001). The modified Frankel score was weakly correlated with the length of hyperintensity of the spinal cord: L2 vertebral body length ratio on mid-sagittal T2-weighted MRI (Spearman's rho=-0.45, P=0.042) as was the overall TSCIS score (Spearman's rho=-0.47, P=0.037). There was also a significant difference in admitting modified Frankel scores (P=0.029) and admitting overall TSCIS scores (P=0.02) between dogs that were ambulatory at discharge and those that were not. Results from this study suggest that the TSCIS is an easy to administer scale for evaluating canine spinal cord injury based on the standard neurological exam and correlates well with a previously described modified Frankel scale.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine (DKV) 05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine (DKV) > Small Animal Clinic > Small Animal Clinic, Surgery 05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine (DKV) > Small Animal Clinic
UniBE Contributor:	Hettlich, Bianca Felicitas
Subjects:	500 Science
ISSN:	0167-5877
Publisher:	Elsevier
Language:	English
Submitter:	Bianca Felicitas Hettlich
Date Deposited:	31 Mar 2016 08:42
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 14:52
Publisher DOI:	10.1016/j.prevetmed.2009.02.016
PubMed ID:	19303151
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/77340