Biomarkers of Recovery from Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury

The purpose of the study is to profile biochemical responses and measure functional recovery in parallel, throughout the 1st year after spinal cord injury (SCI), within the same participants. These responses and recovery will be evaluated in samples from people who have had a spinal cord injury due to trauma (e.g. car accident or a fall) within the first year after SCI. Specifically, the investigators will test the hypothesis that a subset of inflammatory biomarkers correlate inversely with functional recovery. The investigators will use these data to build a predictive model of functional recovery after SCI that incorporates biomarkers that can be easily quantified in the clinic. Total anticipated enrollment will be 100 participants with SCI across three different sites (Northwell Health System (NY), The Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation (NJ), University of Louisville (KY) and may enroll up to 30 participants without SCI.