Paralysis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Paralysis, including details on treatment, diagnosis, facial paralysis, sleep paralysis.

Preserved cardiac function after chronic spinal cord injury.

de Groot PC, van Dijk A, Dijk E, Hopman MT

Department of Physiology, Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of chronic deconditioning on cardiac dimensions and function in subjects with high-level spinal cord injury (SCI), who represent a human in-vivo model of extreme inactivity. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: University medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Seven men with tetraplegia and 7 able-bodied controls. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Echocardiographic measurements of resting cardiac dimensions, systolic function, and global and long-axis diastolic function. RESULTS: Left ventricular mass index was significantly lower in the subjects with SCI than in the controls (90.8+/-26 g/m(2) vs 122+/-28.9 g/m(2); P=.05). In addition, dimensions of left ventricle, left atrium, and vena cava inferior were all significantly reduced in the subjects with SCI compared with controls (P<.05). There were no differences between the groups for any of the parameters reflecting systolic and global and long-axis diastolic function. CONCLUSIONS: Tetraplegia is associated with a reduction in cardiac mass and dimensions. Resting diastolic and systolic function is not altered with continued exposure to inactivity, however, which suggests a remodeling of the heart as a physiologic adaptive process.

Published 28 August 2006 in Arch Phys Med Rehabil, 87(9): 1195-200.
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