Table 2.
Gait abnormalities during pre-clinical EAE. Summary of gait parameters found to be altered during pre-clinical EAE. Two independent experiments were performed, referred to as Cohort#1 and Cohort#2. Gait parameters were evaluated by two independent observers, referred to as Evaluator 1 and Evaluator 2. Arrows indicate whether gait metrics were increased or decreased during the pre-clinical EAE phase. During pre-clinical EAE, 9 fore limb gait parameters were found to be different in Cohort#1 mice, but not in Cohort#2 mice (indicated by ns = not significant). In contrast, 15 hind limb gait parameters were found to be different in Cohort#1 mice, and 7 of these were found to be as well different in the Cohort#2 mice (indicated by the respective p-value). All of these 7 parameters were verified by the Evaluator 2 (last column). The D’Agostino and Pearson test was applied to test for normal distribution of the data. p-values for the effect of EAE treatment were calculated using t-test or Mann-Whitney test according to data distribution. All videos were analyzed by two evaluators (J.Z. and V.Y.) blinded for the experimental groups. * p ≤ 0.05, ** p ≤ 0.01, *** p ≤ 0.001, ns = not significant, ↑: increased; ↓: decreased.
| Parameter Number | Parameters | Evaluator 1 Cohort#1 (Change, Significance, p-Value) |
Evaluator 1 Cohort#2 (Change, Significance, p-Value) |
Evaluator 2 Cohort#1 and Cohort#2 (Change, Significance, p-Value) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fore Limbs | #1 | Paw Angle Variability (Average) | ↓, *, 0.0483 | ↓, ns, 0.7092 | |
| #2 | Stance Width | ↑, *, 0.0241 | ↑, ns, 0.8720 | ||
| #3 | Stride Length Variability (Average) | ↓, ***, 0.0008 | ↑, ns, 0.5670 | ||
| #4 | Stride Width Variability | ↓, ***, 0.0001 | ↓, ns, 0.5056 | ||
| #5 | Stride Length CV (Average) | ↓, *, 0.0101 | ↓, ns, 0.3456 | ||
| #6 | Stance Width CV | ↓, ***, < 0.0001 | ↓, ns, 0.6412 | ||
| #7 | Paw Area at Peak Stance (Average) | ↑, *, 0.0486 | ↑, ns, 0.1747 | ||
| #8 | Paw Area Variability at Peak Stance (Average) | ↓, **, 0.0097 | ↓, ns, 0.2705 | ||
| #9 | Ataxia Coefficient (Average) | ↓, **, 0.0082 | ↓, ns, 0.2659 | ||
| Hind Limbs | #1 | Swing Time (Average) | ↑, *, 0.0239 | ↑, ***, < 0.0001 | ↑, ***,< 0.0001 |
| #2 | %Swing Stride (Average) | ↑, *, 0.0278 | ↑, ***, < 0.0001 | ↑, ***,< 0.0001 | |
| #3 | %Stance Stride (Average) | ↓, *, 0.0278 | ↓, ***, < 0.0001 | ↓, ***,< 0.0001 | |
| #4 | Stance/Swing (Average) | ↓, *, 0.0274 | ↓, ***, < 0.0001 | ↓, ***, 0.0002 | |
| #5 | Paw Angle-Left Hind | ↑, ***, < 0.0001 | ↑, ***, 0.0006 | ↑, ***, < 0.0001 | |
| #6 | Paw Angle-Right Hind | ↑, ***, < 0.0001 | ↑, **, 0.005 | ↑, ***, < 0.0001 | |
| #7 | Absolute Paw Angle (Sum) | ↑, ***, < 0.0001 | ↑, ***, 0.0002 | ↑, ***, < 0.0001 | |
| #8 | Stride Width Variability | ↓, **, 0.0071 | ↓, ns, 0.5056 | ||
| #9 | Stance Width CV | ↓, **, 0.0073 | ↓, ns, 0.6412 | ||
| #10 | Paw Area at Peak Stance (Average) | ↓, ***, 0.0005 | ↑, ns, 0.4922 | ||
| #11 | Paw Area Variability at Peak Stance (Average) | ↓, *, 0.0403 | ↑, ns, 0.2317 | ||
| #12 | MAX dA/dT (Average) | ↓, **, 0.0010 | ↑, ns, 0.2313 | ||
| #13 | Tau-Propulsion (Average) | ↓, *, 0.0198 | ↓, ns, 0.2448 | ||
| #14 | Midline Distance (Sum) | ↑, ***, < 0.0001 | ↓, *, 0.0442 | ||
| #15 | Paw Drag (Average) | ↑, ***, 0.0001 | ↑, ns, 0.7821 |