• Guilherme DE Rossi, José R Matos-Souza, Anselmo D E A Costa E Silva, Luis F Campos, Luiz G Santos, Eliza R Azevedo, Karina C Alonso, Layde R Paim, Roberto Schreiber, José I Gorla, Alberto Cliquet, and Wilson Nadruz.
• 1Department of Internal Medicine, University of Campinas, Campinas, BRAZIL; 2School of Physical Education, University of Campinas, Campinas, SP, BRAZIL; 3Department of Orthopaedics, School of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas, SP, BRAZIL; and 4Department of Electrical Engineering, University of São Paulo, São Carlos, SP, BRAZIL.
• Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2014 Jan 1; 46 (5): 887-92.

PurposeSubjects with spinal cord injury (SCI) have been reported to present impaired left ventricular (LV) diastolic function in comparison with able-bodied (AB) ones. The present study investigated the effect of regular physical activity on the cardiac structure and function of SCI subjects.MethodsFifty-eight SCI men (29 sedentary [SCI-S] and 29 athletes [SCI-A]) and 29 AB men were cross-sectionally evaluated by clinical, laboratory, hemodynamic, and echocardiographic analysis. All enrolled subjects were normotensive, nondiabetic, nonsmoker, and normolipemic, and the studied groups presented similar age and body mass index.ResultsSCI-S presented similar LV structural and systolic parameters but higher E/Em (8.0 ± 0.5) and lower Em/Am (1.18 ± 0.09) ratios than SCI-A and AB (E/Em = 6.4 ± 0.3 and 5.9 ± 0.3, respectively; Em/Am = 1.57 ± 0.12 and 1.63 ± 0.08, respectively; all P < 0.05 compared with SCI-S). Analysis of SCI individuals according to injury level revealed that tetraplegic athletes had similar features compared with sedentary tetraplegic subjects, except for higher Em (10.9 ± 0.6 vs 8.6 ± 0.7 cm s, P < 0.05) and lower E/Em ratio (6.3 ± 0.4 vs 8.8 ± 0.8, P < 0.05), whereas paraplegic athletes had similar features compared with sedentary paraplegic individuals, except for higher LV end-diastolic diameter (49.4 ± 1.4 vs 45.0 ± 1.0 mm, P < 0.05) and Em/Am ratio (1.69 ± 0.20 vs 1.19 ± 0.08, P < 0.05) and lower LV relative wall thickness (0.330 ± 0.012 vs 0.369 ± 0.010, P < 0.05) and heart rate (67.1 ± 4.2 vs 81.9 ± 2.8 bpm, P < 0.05).ConclusionRegular physical activity is associated with improved LV diastolic function in SCI subjects and might exert distinct cardiac structural effects in tetraplegic and paraplegic subjects.

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