Frontiers in Neurology (Jul 2014)

The Irvine, Beatties and Bresnahan (IBB) forelimb recovery scale: An assessment of reliability and validity

  • Karen Amanda Irvine,
  • Adam R Ferguson,
  • Kathleen D. Mitchell,
  • Kathleen D. Mitchell,
  • Stephanie B. Beattie,
  • Amity eLin,
  • Ellen D. Stuck,
  • J Russell Huie,
  • Jessica L. Nielson,
  • Jason F. Talbott,
  • Tomoo eInoue,
  • Tomoo eInoue,
  • Michael S Beattie,
  • Jacqueline C. Bresnahan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2014.00116
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5

Abstract

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The IBB scale is a recently developed forelimb scale for the assessment of fine control of the forelimb and digits after cervical spinal cord injury (SCI; Irvine et al., 2010). The present paper describes the assessment of inter-rater reliability and face, concurrent and construct validity of this scale following SCI. It demonstrates that the IBB is a reliable and valid scale that is sensitive to severity of SCI and to recovery over time. In addition, the IBB correlates with other outcome measures and is highly predictive of biological measures of tissue pathology. Multivariate analysis using principal component analysis (PCA) demonstrates that the IBB is highly predictive of the syndromic outcome after SCI (Ferguson et al., 2013), and is among the best predictors of bio-behavioral function, based on strong construct validity. Altogether, the data suggest that the IBB, especially in concert with other measures, is a reliable and valid tool for assessing neurological deficits in fine motor control of the distal forelimb, and represents a powerful addition to multivariate outcome batteries aimed at documenting recovery of function after cervical SCI in rats.

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