Development of Flexible Software for Studying Peripheral Nerve Regeneration

176 INTRODUCTION A medical diagnosis process pretty much depends on the quality of data collected from a patient and of the area under appreciation. Concerning data collection, this is required in a sufficient number containing the most relevant topics for the identification of the diagnosis and the subsequent therapeutic planning. From the 1980’s on, ischiatic nerves of different animal species have been used in studies and researches on peripheral nerve regeneration. Nervous root injuries, followed by several treatment approaches and submitted to different technique of function evaluation of the limb, have been the focus of researches particularly addressing ischiatic nerve regeneration, and peripheral nerves in general. Gait analysis conducted on the course of evaluation studies provides the researcher with a unique opportunity to assess specific aspects of nervous recovery in a non-hostile model. The accuracy of the functional index performed in nervous injuries or regenerative studies can be confirmed with the use of groups constituted of subjects (rats). Rats’ peripheral nerves are similar to human tissues. The first analysis is made with the animal in its usual state, or, as commonly named, control state. Then, the group of rats is submitted to injuries and assessed, according to the method, for the time factor. This allows the investigator to follow-up an injured nerve regeneration progress, and also helping him/ her to determine an optimal evaluation of the electrical and histological regeneration. This is called experimental state. The scope of this study was data handling by functional quanti-