SCI Publications

Background and purpose: Refinement of robotic exoskeletons for overground walking is progressing rapidly. We describe clinicians' experiences, evaluations, and training strategies using robotic exoskeletons in spinal cord injury rehabilitation and wellness settings and describe clinicians' perceptions of exoskeleton benefits and risks and developments that would enhance utility. Methods: We ...

Background: There is a need to identify reliable biomarkers of spinal cord injury recovery for clinical practice and clinical trials. Objective: Our objective was to correlate serum albumin levels with spinal cord injury neurological outcomes. Methods: We performed a secondary analysis of patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (n ...

Variable and unpredictable spontaneous recovery can occur after acute cervical traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI). Despite the critical clinical and interventional trial planning implications of this tSCI feature, baseline measures to predict neurologic recovery accurately are not well defined. In this study, we used data derived from 99 consecutive ...

To examine the ability of the Spinal Cord Injury-Functional Index/Assistive Technology (SCI-FI/AT) measure to detect change in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Pilot test GoWoman, a small-group weight management intervention for mobility impaired women that was a disability- and gender-responsive adaptation of the Diabetes Prevention Program delivered in the online virtual world of Second Life®. Objectives were to (1) examine pre-/post-intervention differences in weight, waist circumference, diet, physical activity, self-efficacy for ...

To evaluate the relation between wheelchair breakdowns, their immediate consequences, and secondary health complications after spinal cord injury. "Immediate consequences" occur when part of a wheelchair breaks and leaves an individual stranded or injured, or causes him or her to miss medical appointments, work, or school. ...

Study identified demographic and clinical factors associated with loss to follow-up (FU) at post-injury years 1 to 35 among 25,871 people with spinal cord injury (SCI) enrolled in the National Spinal Cord Injury Database. Loss to FU was defined as no research information obtained from participants who were eligible ...

Study examined the role of race/ethnicity on data quality and response completeness among individuals enrolled in a longitudinal spinal cord injury (SCI) database. This study included 7,507 adults (5,483 non-Hispanic whites, 1,414 non-Hispanic blacks, and 610 Hispanics) from 19 SCI Model Systems centers, who returned for follow-up between 2001 ...

Article describes the development and psychometric evaluation of patient-reported outcome measures that assess pain interference and pain behavior after spinal cord injury (SCI). These measures include the Spinal Cord Injury - Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) Pain Interference item bank, SCI-QOL Pain Interference short form, and SCI-QOL Pain Behavior scale. ...

Study assessed the efficacy of a web-based transfer training module on the performance of independent wheelchair transfers immediately after training and after a 1- to 2-day delay and identified subject characteristics that predict improvements in transfer ability after training. Seventy-one manual and power wheelchair users who could transfer independently ...

Study compared baseline characteristics and neurological and functional outcomes for patients with penetrating spinal cord injury (PSCI) and blunt spinal cord injury (BSCI). Data for 5,316 participants with BSCI and 1,062 with PSCI were extracted from the Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems database from January 1994 to January 2015. ...

Objectives: To examine (1) differences in quality-of-life scores for groups based on transitions in locomotion status at 1, 5, and 10 years postdischarge in a sample of people with spinal cord injury (SCI); and (2) whether demographic factors and transitions in locomotion status can predict quality-of-life measures at these time ...