PRESCRIPTIVE ARM ERGOMETRY TO OPTIMIZE MUSCULAR ENDURANCE IN ACUTELY INJURED PARAPLEGIC PATIENTS

  • 1 January 1983
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 64  (12) , 578-582
Abstract
The effect of continuous, intermittent and graded exercise on the cardiopulmonary responses of 12 acutely injured paraplegic individuals having neurologically complete spinal lesions, between T7 and T12 and 7 able-bodied control subjects were compared. Continuous exercise consisted of cranking an arm ergometer at a constant rate of 30W. Intermittent exercise consisted of arm ergometry at 60W for 3 s periods interspersed with 30 s rest periods. In graded exercise, subjects worked for consecutive 2 min periods at rates of 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50W with no rest periods between work periods. Subjects exercised for 10 min or until they reached subjective fatigue. Heart rate (HR) and O2 consumption (.ovrhdot.VO2) were measured during rest and work. Paraplegic subjects performed 4.93, 4.89 and 4.95 W-H of continuous, intermittent and graded exercise, respectively. Comparable figures for control subjects were 4.98, 4.91 and 4.96 W-H. There was a high degree of correlation between HR and .ovrhdot.VO2 in both paraplegic (r = 0.80) and normal (r = 0.85) subjects. Both .ovrhdot.VO2 and HR were highly correlated with work load in each group. Paraplegic subjects had significantly higher HR (P < 0.001), respiratory quotients (P < 0.05) and ventilatory volumes (P < 0.05) than control subjects. Graded exercise produced a significantly higher HR than continuous or intermittent exercise (P < 0.001) during the final data collection period. O2 consumption during graded exercise was higher than .ovrhdot.VO2 for continuous or intermittent exercise (P < 0.01) during the final data collection period. There were no statistically significant differences between continuous and intermittent exercise in either .ovrhdot.VO2 or HR. Serum lactate levels were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in paraplegic than among control subjects; however, the type of exercise had no significant effect on serum lactate levels.

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