SCI-Base: an open-source spinal cord injury animal experimentation database.

Abstract

To capture all pertinent data during spinal cord injury animal experimentation, the authors have designed and implemented a database that is available for use under a public license. Their goals were to record all daily medical care of paraplegic animals, including unexpected complications; to store all injury parameters and/or therapeutic procedures; to track locomotor scores and other measures of functional recovery; to allow planning and management of experiments; and to serve as an externally linkable, SQL-queryable data mining source. Ultimately, the use of databases such as this will allow multiple neurotrauma laboratories to compare animal data through web meta-analysis.