Browse the latest research summaries in the field of physiology for spinal cord injury patients and caregivers.
Showing 121-130 of 292 results
Neural Plasticity, 2015 • May 27, 2015
This review examines the clinical application of intermittent hypoxia (IH) in humans with spinal cord injury (SCI). IH appears to be a safe and efficient method for enhancing physical function, partic...
KEY FINDING: Short-term IH administration enhances respiratory function in humans with SCI.
Aging and Disease, 2015 • August 1, 2015
Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to serious body composition changes, with increased fat mass (FM) and decreased lean mass (LM), potentially causing cardio-metabolic disorders. Upper extremity (UE) circ...
KEY FINDING: SCI results in increased fat mass and decreased lean mass, leading to cardio-metabolic disorders.
Frontiers in Physiology, 2016 • December 9, 2016
This study investigated the effects of passive robotic leg exercise (PE) and functional electrical stimulation (FES) on cardiovascular parameters during head-up tilt in healthy subjects. The findings ...
KEY FINDING: Head-up tilt alone increases heart rate and diastolic blood pressure, but not systolic blood pressure.
Brain Res, 2015 • November 19, 2015
The goal of this study was to examine the effects of vibration in lean and obese Zucker rats to determine if the elevation in glucose and insulin in obese rats had a significant effect on sensation or...
KEY FINDING: Obese Zucker rats displayed very few changes in sensorineural function as measured by transcutaneous electrical stimulation immediately after vibration exposure.
Respir Physiol Neurobiol, 2018 • January 1, 2018
This study compared respiratory function and motor control in typically developing children and children with spinal cord injury (SCI). It found that children with SCI have significant deficits in res...
KEY FINDING: Children with SCI have significantly reduced FVC, FEV1, and PEmax values compared to TD controls, indicating impaired respiratory function.
Physiol Rep, 2015 • November 1, 2015
The study examined the expression of microRNAs and myostatin in skeletal muscle of humans with spinal cord injury. It found a progressive decline in microRNA-208b and microRNA-499-5p expression after ...
KEY FINDING: Skeletal muscle expression of microRNA-208b and microRNA-499-5p progressively declined within the first year after cervical spinal cord injury in humans, with changes maintained in long-standing injury.
The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine, 2016 • July 1, 2016
This study compared cardiovascular responses to peak voluntary exercise in males with cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) and able-bodied controls. The key finding was that blood pressure did not increa...
KEY FINDING: Blood pressure did not significantly increase in the Tetra group (cervical SCI) following maximal arm crank exercise, unlike the significant increase observed in the Control group.
Frontiers in Physiology, 2018 • December 6, 2018
The study investigated the convergence of vestibulospinal and corticospinal pathways on lumbosacral motor pools in humans using transcutaneous electrical spinal stimulation, galvanic vestibular stimul...
KEY FINDING: Corticospinal volleys facilitate spinally evoked motor potentials at short latencies (10-30 ms).
PLoS ONE, 2016 • January 21, 2016
The study investigated the influence of body position on the recruitment of neural structures during lumbar transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation in able-bodied individuals. The results showed that b...
KEY FINDING: Responses to the second stimulus were decreased to 14% ±5% in the supine position, to 30%±5% in the standing, and to only 80%±5% in the prone position.
Exp Neurol, 2016 • April 1, 2016
The study investigates the impact of embryonic midline brainstem (MB) cell transplantation on respiratory outcomes after cervical spinal cord injury (cSCI) in rats. The researchers found that rats wit...
KEY FINDING: MB grafts had a more robust respiratory response during a respiratory challenge (7% inspired CO2).