NEW! CatWalk XT 9.1 and the goal box

New goal box

Your time is valuable. You need to accomplish your research goals quickly and efficiently and yet at the same time, you want to acquire objective and accurate data. When investigating gait disturbances in rodents, CatWalk XT is the system that does it all. And with the new goal box, research becomes even more efficient.

The goal box is a new addition to the CatWalk XT system. It is mounted at one end of the runway and consists of a black shelter with room for a home cage underneath, which the animal can access through a hole. Both motivate your mouse or rat to cross the runway in a consistent manner. This reduces the time it takes to train your animals and improves the quality of the data you acquire during the experiments. With a goal box at the end of the runway including a home cage underneath, the animal is less likely to stop along the way or turn around, motivated by the desire to go to the safety of familiar surroundings. In other words, more runs will be compliant with your run criteria.

Additional paw angle measurement

The recently introduced Interactive Footprint Measurements Module allows CatWalk XT to calculate several print related parameters based on:

•    Toe spread
•    Intermediate toe spread
•    Print length
•    Paw angle

Toe spread and print length are used to calculate the Sciatic Functional Index, used to evaluate recovery of sciatic nerve functioning in rats. The paw angle is based on the angle between the paw axis and the body axis or – new in CatWalk XT9.1 – the direction of movement vector.

User profiles

Another way to save on your valuable research time is to make use of the user profiles in CatWalk XT 9.1. Define run criteria, time points, treatment groups, and trials in an easy and convenient manner, and use this profile whenever you like. This saves time and prevents errors.

Improved Data Segmentation Profiles
Data Segmentation Profiles allow you to select parts of runs based on speed parameters and number of consecutive steps. This is not new to CatWalk XT, but we have improved its features, giving you even more insight into and control over your data.

Automated Footprint Classification

The previous release of CatWalk XT included Automatic Footprint Classification. The name says it all; at the push of a button, all the footprints in a run are automatically classified.