Journal of pharmacological and toxicological methods
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J Pharmacol Toxicol Methods · May 2016
Swing time ratio, a new parameter of gait disturbance, for the evaluation of the severity of neuropathic pain in a rat model of partial sciatic nerve ligation.
Dynamic weight bearing tests are used to evaluate the chronic pain severity in animal models of nociceptive pain (such as osteoarthritis); however, common tests frequently fail to collect the characteristics of neuropathic pain such as allodynia, because surgical intervention which is sometimes required to establish the models causes both nociceptive and neuropathic pain. ⋯ STR is sensitive to claudication of rats with PSL, providing a new scale to evaluate neuropathic pain in addition to conventional tests. Moreover, STR analysis enables us to evaluate walking function of animal models after neuropathic injury, which is quite important to judge the effectiveness of new treatments and analgesics.