Effect of acute intermittent hypoxia treatment on ventilatory load compensation and magnitude estimation of inspiratory resistive loads in an individual with chronic incomplete cervical spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injuries can disrupt the signals between the brain and respiratory muscles, affecting breathing and the ability to respond to breathing challenges. This study explores if a treatment called acute intermittent hypoxia (AIH) can help improve breathing in someone with a spinal cord injury. AIH treatment involves repeated exposure to low oxygen levels with elevated carbon dioxide. The researchers wanted to see if AIH could improve how well the participant could handle increased breathing resistance and how sensitive they were to these changes. The study found that AIH treatment improved the participant's ability to compensate for increased breathing resistance. However, it didn't significantly change how sensitive they were to the feeling of increased resistance.

• 1
  Significant improvements in airflow generated in response to applied inspiratory resistive loads were found after AIH treatment compared to Baseline.
• 2
  There were no significant changes in the respiratory perceptual sensitivity to applied inspiratory resistive loads after AIH treatment.
• 3
  Values for percent-predicted forced vital capacity (FVC) increased significantly on Post Sham, and AIH Days 1 and 10 compared to Baseline.