Ann Rehabil Med.  2015 Feb;39(1):91-99. 10.5535/arm.2015.39.1.91.

Effect of Regular Exercise on Cardiopulmonary Fitness in Males With Spinal Cord Injury

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju, Korea. topkjoh@hanmail.net
  • 2Center for Exercise Medicine, Yonsei University, Wonju, Korea.
  • 3Department of Physiology, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju, Korea.

Abstract


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the cardiopulmonary endurance of subjects with spinal cord injury by measuring the maximal oxygen consumption with varying degrees of spinal cord injury level, age, and regular exercise.
METHODS
We instructed the subjects to perform exercises using arm ergometer on healthy adults at 20 years of age or older with spinal cord injury, and their maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) was measured with a metabolic measurement system. The exercise proceeded stepwise according to the exercise protocol and was stopped when the subject was exhausted or when VO2 reached an equilibriu
RESULTS
Among the 40 subjects, there were 10 subjects with cervical cord injury, 27 with thoracic cord injury, and 3 with lumbar cord injury. Twenty-five subjects who were exercised regularly showed statistically higher results of VO2max than those who did not exercise regularly. Subjects with cervical injury showed statistically lower VO2max than the subjects with thoracic or lumbar injury out of the 40 subjects with neurologic injury. In addition, higher age showed a statistically lower VO2max. Lastly, the regularly exercising paraplegic group showed higher VO2max than the non-exercising paraplegic group.
CONCLUSION
There are differences in VO2max of subjects with spinal cord injury according to the degree of neurologic injury, age, and whether the subject participates in regular exercise. We found that regular exercise increased the VO2max in individuals with spinal cord injury.

Keyword

Spinal cord injury; Oxygen consumption; Arm ergometry test; Aging; Aerobic exercise

MeSH Terms

Adult
Aging
Arm
Exercise
Exercise Test
Humans
Male
Oxygen Consumption
Spinal Cord Injuries*

Figure

  • Fig. 1 Test settings of the arm ergometer 917900 (Lode BV, Groningen, The Netherlands), ECG monitoring Q-STRESS v3.5 (Cardiac Science, Bothell, WA, USA), and metabolic measurement system TrueOne 2400 (Parvo Medics, Sandy, UT, USA) are shown.

  • Fig. 2 The mean maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) of cervical, thoracic, and lumbar level injury subjects are shown. According to neurologic injury level, the thoracic and lumbar groups show significantly higher mean VO2max levels than the cervical group. *p<0.05, significant difference between cervical and thoracic groups. **p<0.05, significant difference between cervical and lumbar groups. No significant difference between thoracic and lumbar groups (p>0.05).

  • Fig. 3 The mean maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) of the exercise group was significantly higher than that of the non-exercise group in paraplegic subjects. *p<0.05, significant difference between exercise and non-exercise groups.

  • Fig. 4 The mean maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) of individual age groups in all subjects (A), paraplegics (B), and tetraplegics (C). No significant difference was found between group-pairs in the 40 subjects (A) (p>0.05). According to age groups, the under 40 age group showed a significantly higher mean VO2max than the 40s and over 50 age groups in paraplegics. *p<0.05, significant difference between under 40 and 40s age groups in paraplegic subjects. **p<0.05, significant difference between under 40 and over 50 age groups in paraplegic subjects. No significant difference between 40s and over 50 age groups in paraplegic subjects (B) (p>0.05). No significant difference between group-pairs in tetraplegic subjects (C) (p>0.05).

  • Fig. 5 The mean maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) of the exercise group and non-exercise group in the under 40 (A), 40-49 (B), 50 and over (C) age groups. *p<0.05.


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