Cardiopulmonary responses to active and electrically stimulated stepping, with robotics assistance in early-stage spinal cord injury

Subsequent co-factors such as low blood pressure and muscle atrophy lead to a decrease in cardiopulmonary fitness. It is proposed here that the introduction of an appropriate training program during the early stage of injury may attenuate this loss of fitness. This work examined the cardiopulmonary responses of three motor complete and three motor incomplete spinal cord injured subjects to a number of robotics-assisted stepping exercises. Subjects participated in periods of passive, active and electrically stimulated stepping. Increases in a number of cardiopulmonary parameters were observed with some subjects, in response to these exercises. These results show that those with an incomplete SCI may benefit from this form training during the acute phase of injury