THE EFFECT OF EXERCISE TRAINING ON PULMONARY-FUNCTION IN PERSONS WITHQUADRIPLEGIA

The purpose of this study is to determine if measures of pulmonary fun ction are different between endurance trained and nontrained groups of persons with quadriplegia. After minimum criteria were met, 57 subjec ts with spinal cord injuries ranging from C5-T1 were surveyed to deter mine type, duration and intensity of exercise training for the previou s 6 months. Subjects were assigned to the trained or untrained groups based on the operational definitions of 'trained' vs 'untrained'. A co mputerized spirometer was used to test forced vital capacity (FVC), fo rced mid-expiratory flow (FEF25-75%) and maximum voluntary ventilation (MVV) as indicators of respiratory muscle strength, airway patency an d repiratory muscle endurance, respectively. Independent t tests and W ilcoxon-Mann-Whitney nonparametric tests revealed no significant diffe rences between the 'trained' and 'untrained' groups for the pulmonary functions. Correlation analysis revealed a moderate relationship (r = 0.498; p less-than-or-equal-to 0.0001) between a derived continuous va riable called the weighted training equivalent (WTE) and FVC. Regressi on analysis revealed that WTE and level of injury accounted for approx imately 30% of the variance of FVC with WTE contributing 25%. Exercise training may positively affect FVC in persons with quadriplegia.