Neurorehabilitation and neural repair
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Neurorehabil Neural Repair · Feb 2011
The reproducibility and convergent validity of the walking index for spinal cord injury (WISCI) in chronic spinal cord injury.
The Walking Index for Spinal Cord Injury II (WISCI II) is a hierarchical scale that measures improvements in walking following spinal cord injury (SCI). The WISCI II has good face validity, concurrent validity, and reliability following acute SCI; however, psychometric properties need to be determined for chronic SCI. Because prior studies have demonstrated a relationship between lower-extremity motor scores (LEMS) and walking, outcome measures for walking should demonstrate a linkage between the underlying impairment (weakness) and walking-convergent validity. ⋯ Results suggest that the WISCI II should be a very useful outcome measure for detecting changes in walking function following chronic SCI.
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Neurorehabil Neural Repair · Feb 2011
Posterolateral surface electrical stimulation of abdominal expiratory muscles to enhance cough in spinal cord injury.
Spinal cord injury (SCI) patients have respiratory complications because of abdominal muscle weakness and paralysis, which impair the ability to cough. ⋯ The increases in P(ga) and PEF with electrical stimulation using the novel posterolateral electrode placement are 2 to 3 times greater than improvements reported in other studies. This suggests that posterolateral electrical stimulation of abdominal muscles is a simple noninvasive way to enhance cough in individuals with SCI.