American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology
-
Am. J. Physiol. Heart Circ. Physiol. · Nov 2017
Comparative StudyA comparison of passive hind-limb cycling and active upper-limb exercise provides new insights into systolic dysfunction following spinal cord injury.
Active upper-limb and passive lower-limb exercise are two interventions used in the spinal cord injury (SCI) population. Although the global cardiac responses have been previously studied, it is unclear how either exercise influences contractile cardiac function. Here, the cardiac contractile and volumetric responses to upper-limb (swim) and passive lower-limb exercise were investigated in rodents with a severe high-thoracic SCI. ⋯ NEW & NOTEWORTHY This is the first direct comparison between the cardiac changes elicited by active upper-limb or passive lower-limb exercise after spinal cord injury. Here, we demonstrate that lower-limb exercise positively influences flow-derived cardiac indexes, whereas upper-limb exercise does not. Furthermore, neither intervention corrects the cardiac contractile dysfunction associated with spinal cord injury.