Consumer-engagement programs in spinal cord injury (SCI) research are often evaluated through attendance, satisfaction, knowledge and confidence. These outcomes are useful, but mainly describe preparation rather than whether people become involved as research partners. This argument uses the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behaviour (COM-B) model as an organising lens and argues that evaluation should consider capability, motivation and the opportunity landscape in which engagement occurs. Practical evaluation should ask whether suitable roles and accessible pathways exist, why involvement does or does not follow, and what happens over time. Grant-development support remains important in a competitive funding environment and should be evaluated through process quality rather than funding success alone. Evaluation should therefore connect preparation with opportunity, involvement and longer-term influence while recognising limits to attribution.
Experimental laboratory study; fully factorial hydrogel formulation design with mechanical benchmarking against published spinal cord tissue data. To develop and characterise polyacrylamide-alginate (PAAm-alginate) double-network hydrogels as surrogates for the transverse compressive response of cervical spinal cord tissue, and to identify the formulation variables governing surrogate stiffness. University biomechanics laboratory, Adelaide, Australia. Twenty-seven formulations combined three alginate concentrations (4.7, 7.8, 10.3% w/v), three ionic crosslinkers (CaCl₂, FeCl₃, AlCl₃) and three immersion durations (1, 2, 3 h). 313 elliptical specimens were tested in transverse compression at four displacement rates (~0.01–140 s⁻¹). Characteristic curves were generated by arc-length re-parameterisation, compared by statistical parametric mapping, and benchmarked against published human and porcine cervical cord data. All formulations showed J-shaped, rate-dependent viscoelastic responses. Loading rate produced the most consistently resolvable differences, followed by crosslinking ion, alginate concentration and immersion duration. Among formulation variables, crosslinking ion had the largest effect, alginate concentration showed diminishing gains above 7.8%, and immersion duration a modest, crosslinker-dependent effect. CaCl₂ formulations matched the benchmarks most closely at every rate; at ~50 s⁻¹, CaCl₂ / 10.3% / pooled 2 h + 3 h matched porcine cord in tangent modulus (~1180 kPa) and stress at benchmark failure strain (~490 kPa). PAAm-alginate double-network hydrogels reproduce the nonlinear, rate-dependent transverse compressive behaviour of cervical spinal cord tissue and can be tuned to published benchmarks, most closely under dynamic loading. They provide a basis for instrumentable cord surrogates for ex vivo injury biomechanics and surgical simulation. University of Adelaide Medical School Development Grant.
Retrospective study. To characterize the distribution patterns, associated clinical factors, and temporal detection profiles of tract-specific MRI-visible Wallerian degeneration (WD) in patients with traumatic cervical spinal cord injury (tCSCI). China Rehabilitation Research Center, Beijing, China. Medical records of patients with tCSCI admitted between January 2015 and December 2024 were reviewed. Primary analyses used the first eligible post-injury MRI. WD was identified on T2-weighted MRI as tract-specific hyperintensity remote from the injury epicenter. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed for dorsal column WD (DC-WD), spinothalamic tract WD (ST-WD), and corticospinal tract WD (CS-WD). Temporal detectability was assessed across five injury-to-MRI interval categories. Of 238 patients, DC-WD was detected in 122 (51.3%), ST-WD in 103 (43.3%), and CS-WD in 64 (26.9%). ST-WD occurred only with DC-WD, and CS-WD only with concurrent DC-WD and ST-WD, forming a nested pattern of MRI-visible tract involvement. After multivariable adjustment, the log-transformed injury-to-MRI interval was significantly associated with all three WD subtypes (DC-WD: aOR = 12.74; ST-WD: aOR = 7.96; CS-WD: aOR = 6.45; all p < 0.001). The model-estimated injury-to-MRI intervals corresponding to a 50% predicted probability of MRI-visible WD were 59.1 days for DC-WD, 79.1 days for ST-WD, and 152.9 days for CS-WD. Tract-specific MRI-visible WD after tCSCI showed a nested distribution and interval-dependent detectability. These exploratory, cross-sectional estimates should not be interpreted as longitudinal detection times but may provide reference data for MRI interpretation after tCSCI.
