Digital Outcome Measures for Gait and Spontaneous Locomotor Activity in Dystrophic Dogs

Digital outcome measures utilizing digital devices and instruments are highly effective in capturing significant changes quantitatively in clinical trials of patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. A dystrophic model of beagle dogs, known as canine X-linked muscular dystrophy in Japan (CXMD_J), shows the symptoms of muscle weakness and has been evaluated for motor function using these digital outcome measures to assess therapeutic efficacy and monitor disease progression circumstantially. Here, we present accelerometry methods for analyzing gait function and infrared monitoring analysis for assessing spontaneous locomotor activity in CXMD_J dystrophic dogs. The multiple parameters derived from these methods can provide valuable phenotypic information in medium-to-large-sized experimental animals.