Motor function measurements were collected in accordance with the "Appraisal standards for functional measures in independent elderly people" set by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Japan.
Block success evaluations in regional anesthesia studies are time consuming (repetitive sensible testing of heat and cold, pin prick testing, and motor function measurements every 5 min for at least 60 min) and difficult to establish in prospective cohort evaluations.
Altogether, eight repeated measures with three-dimensional gait analysis and five clinical measurements using the gross motor function measure (GMFM) were performed.
Since therapeutic approaches to MLD are being explored, we evaluated a wide range of potential markers of disease severity including biochemical and molecular analyses (ASA activity, genotype, ASA mRNA levels, and residual ASA CRIM), measurements of motor function (GMFM-88, gross motor function measure-88), brain MRI and MR spectroscopy, neurophysiological assessments and sural nerve biopsy.
Body weight, body composition, and motor function were measured.
At 5 weeks of age, mice in the neonate trial were assayed for motor function via grip strength measurement.
The functional assessment included the Fugl-Meyer upper extremity (F-M UE) scale and the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) as measurements of motor function and independence, respectively.
Reliable measurement of motor function is essential when evaluating rodent models of diseases that are primarily characterized by motor disabilities (Brooks and Dunnett, 2009).
The EACD guidelines also recommend repeated measurement of motor function in children under 6 years of age to ensure valid and reliable identification of children with DCD, which we will also do.
Measurement of motor function involved placing individual age-matched larvae at the centre of a 0.7% (w/v) agar plate and counting the forward body wall contractions exhibited in 2 min. At least 15 larvae per genotype were scored for muscle contraction assays.
Rotarod measurement was performed to measure the motor function of the ALS mice.
