Bowel dysfunction after chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) is a common source of morbidity and rehospitalization. Typical complications include constipation, fecal impaction, incontinence, abdominal distention, autonomic dysreflexia, and the necessity of interventions (i.e., suppositories, digital stimulation) to defecate. Numerous surveys have confirmed that the remediation of bowel complications is more highly valued for quality of life than improvements in walking. Much of what is known about bowel function after SCI for diagnosis and research in humans has been gained using anorectal manometry (ARM) procedures. However, ARM has been underutilized in pre-clinical animal work. Therefore, a novel combination of outcome measures was examined in the current study that incorporates functional output of the bowel (weekly fecal measurements), weight gain (pre-injury to terminal weight), and terminal ARM measurement with external anal sphincter electromyography under urethane anesthesia. The results indicate higher fecal output after contusion during the sub-acute period (4–7 days) post-injury, changes in the composition of the feces, and functionally obstructive responses in a specific section of the rectum (increased baseline pressure, increased frequency of contraction, and reduced ability to trigger a giant contraction to a distension stimulus). These results demonstrate significant bowel dysfunction in the rodent SCI contusion model that is consistent with data from human research. Thus, the combined measurement protocol enables the detection of changes and can be used, with minimal cost, to assess effectiveness of therapeutic interventions on bowel complications.

中文翻译：

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在大鼠脊髓挫伤模型中用肛门直肠测压法研究肠功能。

慢性脊髓损伤 (SCI) 后的肠功能障碍是发病率和再住院的常见原因。典型的并发症包括便秘、粪便嵌塞、大小便失禁、腹胀、自主神经反射异常以及干预（即栓剂、数字刺激）排便的必要性。许多调查已经证实，与改善步行相比，肠道并发症的治疗对生活质量的重视程度更高。用于人类诊断和研究的 SCI 后肠道功能的大部分知识都是通过肛门直肠测压 (ARM) 程序获得的。然而，ARM 在临床前动物研究中并未得到充分利用。因此，在当前的研究中检查了一种新的结果测量组合，其中结合了肠道的功能输出（每周粪便测量），体重增加（受伤前至终末体重），以及在尿烷麻醉下使用肛门外括约肌肌电图进行终末 ARM 测量。结果表明，在受伤后的亚急性期（4-7 天），挫伤后粪便排出量更高，粪便成分发生变化，直肠特定部分的功能性阻塞反应（基线压力增加，频率增加）收缩，并降低了对膨胀刺激触发巨大收缩的能力）。这些结果表明啮齿动物 SCI 挫伤模型中存在显着的肠道功能障碍，这与人类研究的数据一致。因此，组合测量协议能够检测变化，并且可以以最小的成本用于评估治疗干预对肠道并发症的有效性。