SCI Publications

Study determined the demographic and clinical profile of people who sustained spinal cord injury (SCI) as a result of accidental falls and documented the usual circumstances surrounding the fall-induced SCI. Participants were 6,408 individuals with traumatic SCI enrolled in 21 SCI Model Systems centers throughout the United States between ...

Study identified strategies for self-advocacy and navigating the health care system as perceived by individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) who report high satisfaction with their primary care, compared to the perceptions of SCI practitioners. Data were obtained through interviews conducted with 7 satisfied consumers with SCI and 4 ...

Study examined the upper-extremity (UE) motor function in patient with spinal cord injury (SCI) to provide insight into why clean intermittent catheterization (CIC) 'dropout' occurs and determine a more appropriate target percentage for CIC in this patient population. Discharge data were extracted from the National Spinal Cord Injury Database ...

Study evaluated the immediate effects of transfer training based on the Transfer Assessment Instrument (TAI) on upper-limb biomechanics during transfers. The TAI consist of 2 parts. Part 1 of the TAI divides a transfer into 15 items, each representing a component transfer skill. Part 2 evaluates the consistency of ...

Study investigated whether age, pinprick scores in the lower extremities, and neurologic severity of injury influence recovery of ambulation in people with motor complete, sensory incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) 1 year after initial injury. This retrospective analysis examined 249 subjects with American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS) ...

Study examined the construct of loneliness and its correlates in people with spinal cord injury (SCI), assessed the reliability and validity of the 3-item Loneliness Scale, and evaluated the unique impact of loneliness on psychological health. Data were collected from 175 people with SCI who participated in Spinal Cord ...

Study investigated the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on the nociceptive response and on interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), interleukin-10 (IL-10), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) levels in central nervous system (CNS) structures of rats with neuropathic pain (NP). tDCS is a non-invasive method of cerebral stimulation and ...

Article reviews the most current literature on the medical management of the neurogenic bladder to treat detrusor overactivity, improve bladder compliance, and treat urinary incontinence. The use of antimuscarinics, alpha blockers, tricyclic antidepressants, desmopressin and mirabegron are discussed along with combination therapy to improve efficacy. ...

Study identified factors that contribute to variable placebo responses in clinical trials involving individuals with central neuropathic pain. Defined as a reduction in pain in the placebo arm of a clinical trial, the “placebo response” includes the placebo effect (the true psychobiological effects causing a reduction in pain) in ...

Study evaluated the effectiveness of telephone counseling (TC) in reducing medical complications and health care utilization and improving psychosocial outcomes during the first year after spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation. A total of 168 patients participated in a single-site, single-blind, randomized controlled trial comparing usual care plus TC with ...

Study used previous research data to determine appropriate roughness thresholds to characterize whether pedestrian pathways poses a comfort or health risk to wheelchair users. A previously published study investigated the correlation between the pathway roughness index (PRI) and whole body vibration (WBV) exposure to wheelchair users. The results of ...

Study assessed the prevalence of bowel-related complications in people with spinal cord injury (SCI) and identified the factors associated with constipation and incontinence as well as overall bowel dysfunction. A total of 291 subjects who incurred traumatic SCI with resultant neurogenic bowel were evaluated. Constipation, bowel incontinence, and neurogenic ...

Study identified behaviors associated with the management of neurogenic bowel and bladder among individuals with chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) and explored whether relationships exist between the performance of those behaviors and outcomes related to health and quality of life (QOL). A survey developed to collect self-report information about ...

Study evaluated a home-based strategy for diagnosing sleep-disordered breathing and nocturnal hypercapnia in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). A total of 81 adults with C1-T6 SCI underwent an unsupervised home sleep apnea test combined with transcutaneous partial pressure of carbon dioxide/oxygen saturation by pulse oximetry monitoring. The main ...

Article provides a brief review of the Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems (SCIMS) program throughout its history, to facilitate a better understanding and interpretation of the data presented in SCIMS research publications, including the articles published in this special journal issue. The SCIMS centers have provided continuous, comprehensive multidisciplinary ...

Study investigated whether spinal cord injury-induced immune deficiency syndrome (SCI-IDS) may account for the enhanced infection susceptibility based on spinal cord injury (SCI) lesion level. Pneumonia is the leading cause of death after acute SCI and is associated with poor neurological outcome. Researchers applied a clinically relevant model of ...

Study examined the relationship between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and pressure ulcers (PrU), after controlling for demographic and injury characteristics, socioeconomic factors, health behaviors and fatigue among 350 participants with spinal cord injury (SCI). Blood tests and physical examination were performed. Waist circumference, high-density cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure and fasting ...

Study used musculoskeletal modeling and forward dynamics simulations to investigate the influence of the hand pattern used during manual wheelchair propulsion on specific measures of upper-extremity muscle demand. The hand pattern (i.e., full-cycle hand path) used during manual wheelchair propulsion is frequently classified as one of four distinct hand ...

Article describes the development of the International Spinal Cord Injury Pain Extended Data Set (ISCIPEDS) to guide the assessment and treatment of pain after spinal cord injury (SCI). Members of the interdisciplinary working group recommended four assessment domains for the ISCIPEDS: (1) pain symptoms, including variables related to pain ...

This study was conducted to describe individual-level temporal change in life satisfaction after spinal cord injury (SCI) using individual growth curve (IGC) analysis of prospectively collected data from the National Spinal Cord Injury Database (NSCID). IGC methodology allows researchers and clinicians to anticipate patient-specific trajectories through use of an ...