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Improvement of Metabolic and Cardiorespiratory Responses Through Treadmill Gait Training With Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation in Quadriplegic Subjects
Author(s) -
De Carvalho Daniela Cristina Leite,
Martins Cristiane Luzia,
Cardoso Simone David,
Cliquet Alberto
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
artificial organs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.684
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1525-1594
pISSN - 0160-564X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1525-1594.2006.00180.x
Subject(s) - treadmill , cardiorespiratory fitness , heart rate , medicine , gait , physical therapy , gait training , respiratory minute volume , stimulation , physical medicine and rehabilitation , ventilation (architecture) , functional electrical stimulation , cardiology , blood pressure , rehabilitation , respiratory system , mechanical engineering , engineering
This work assessed the influence of treadmill gait training with neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) on the metabolic and cardiorespiratory responses in quadriplegic subjects. The gait group (GG) ( n = 11) performed 6 months of treadmill training with 30–50% body weight support and with the help of physiotherapists, twice a week, allotting 20 min for each session. The control group (CG) ( n = 10), during the 6 months of training, did not perform any activity using NMES, performing instead conventional physiotherapy. Metabolic and cardiorespiratory responses (O 2 uptake [ V O 2 ], CO 2 production [ V CO 2 ], pulmonary ventilation ( V E ), heart rate [HR], and blood pressure [BP]) were measured on inclusion and after 6 months. For the GG, differences were found in all parameters after training ( P < 0.05), except for HR and diastolic BP. During gait, V O 2 (L/min) increased by 36%, V CO 2 (L/min) increased by 42.97%, V E (L/min) increased by 30.48%, and systolic BP (mm Hg) increased by 4.8%. For the CG, only V O 2 and V CO 2 (L/min) significantly increased at rest (30.82 and 16.39%, respectively) and during knee‐extension exercise (26.29 and 17.37%, respectively). Treadmill gait with NMES was, therefore, more efficient toward increasing the aerobic capacity due to yielding higher metabolic and cardiovascular stresses.