Table 1 Overview of Analyzed Gait Parameters
Parameters | Explanation | |
|---|---|---|
Basic | Average speed (cm/s) | Speed of the animal’s body in the recorded run |
Number of steps | Total number of selected steps in one run | |
Body speed (cm/s) | Speed calculated by dividing the distance that the animal’s body traveled from one initial contact of one paw to the next by the time to travel that distance | |
Body speed validation (%) | Percentage calculated by dividing the absolute difference between the body speed and the average speed of a run by the average speed | |
Calculated from walking durations | Stand (s) | Duration of contact of a paw with the glass plate (Fig. 1) |
Swing (s) | Duration of no contact of a paw with the glass plate (Fig. 1) | |
Step cycle (s) | Time in seconds between two consecutive initial contacts of the same paw: stand + swing (Fig. 1) | |
Duty cycle (%) | Stand as a percentage of step cycle: stand / (stand + swing) × 100 (Fig. 1) | |
Calculated from bilateral paw durations | Initial dual stance (s) | The duration of ground contact for both hind paws simultaneously, but the first one in a step cycle of a target hind paw (Fig. 1) |
Terminal dual stance (s) | The duration of ground contact for both hind paws simultaneously, but the latter one in a step cycle of a target hind paw (Fig. 1) | |
Single stance (s) | Duration in seconds of ground contact for a single hind paw | |
Calculated from the data of maximum contact | Stand index | Speed at which the paw loses contact with the glass plate |
Max contact at (%) | Max contact at (s) relative to stand of a paw Max contact at (s): the time in seconds since the start of the run that a paw makes maximum contact with the glass plate | |
Max contact area (cm2) | Maximum area of a paw that comes into contact with the glass plate | |
Calculated from the light intensity data | Max contact max intensity | Maximum intensity at maximum contact of a paw |
Max contact mean intensity | Mean intensity of a paw at maximum contact | |
Max intensity at (%) | Max intensity at (s) relative to stand of a paw Max intensity at (s): time in seconds since the start of the run that the maximum intensity is measured | |
Max intensity | Maximum intensity of the complete paw | |
Min intensity | Minimum intensity of the complete paw | |
Mean intensity | Mean intensity of the complete paw | |
Calculated from the data of the complete paw print | Print length (cm) | Length (horizontal direction) of the complete print |
Print width (cm) | Width (vertical direction) of the complete paw print | |
Print area (cm2) | Surface area of the complete print | |
Swing speed (cm/s) | Speed of the paw during swing: stride length / swing | |
Stride length (cm) | Distance between successive placements of the same paw | |
Other | Regularity index (%) | Number of normal step sequence patterns relative to the total number of paw placements |
Base of support (cm) | Average width between either the front paws or the hind paws (base of support of hind paws was analyzed in this study) | |
Sciatic functional index | Measure of the functional recovery of the sciatic nerve that innervates the hind paws | |
Phase dispersions | Parameters describing the temporal relationship between placement of two paws within a step cycle: ((Initial contact of target paw – Initial contact of anchor paw) / step cycle of anchor paw) × 100 (Fig. 1) Phase dispersions of two girdle pairs (right forepaw and left forepaw: LF-RF, right hind paw and left hind paw: LH-RH) were analyzed Left paws were always set as the anchor paw | |