The effect of direct-current field on recovery from experimental XXXX .

@entity1566 @entity35
Recent work has indicated that direct-current (DC) fields may promote recovery after acute @entity1566 . In the present experiments, the therapeutic value of an applied DC field was studied in 40 @entity35 with clip compression injuries of the cord at C7-T1. The @entity35 were randomly allocated to one of four groups including 10 @entity35 each: two groups received a 17-gm @entity1566 and two groups a 53-gm injury. One group at each injury severity received implantation of a treatment (14 microA) DC stimulator and the other group a control (0 microA) stimulator. Clinical neurological function was assessed weekly by the inclined-plane technique. At 8 weeks after injury, motor and somatosensory evoked potentials (MEP's and SSEP's) were recorded, and the axonal tracer horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was introduced into the cord at T-6. The total number of HRP-labeled cells was counted in every sixth coronal section through the brain stem and motor cortex. All outcome parameters were assessed blindly. In the 17-gm group, there were no significant differences in any outcome measure between control and treated @entity35 . In contrast, in the 53-gm group, the inclined-plane scores, the amplitude of the MEP's, and the number of labeled cells in the red nucleus, raph   nuclei, and vestibular nuclei were greater in treated than in control @entity35 . These data strongly indicate that an applied DC field can produce functional neurological and anatomical improvement in @entity35 with acute @entity1566 .
