LIMB BLOOD-FLOW, CARDIAC-OUTPUT AND QUADRICEPS MUSCLE BULK FOLLOWING SPINAL-CORD INJURY AND THE EFFECT OF TRAINING FOR THE ODSTOCK FUNCTIONAL ELECTRICAL-STIMULATION STANDING SYSTEM

As part of the assessment of the Odstock functional electrical stimula tion (FES) standing system for mid to low thoracic lesion spinal cord injured (SCI) subjects, cardiac output, thigh blood flow and quadricep s muscle thickness were measured before and following an electrical st imulation muscle retraining programme. The same parameters were also m easured in a group of uninjured subjects and in SCI subjects. It was f ound that there was no difference in cardiac output between the groups . However thigh blood flow was found to be around 65% of normal values in the spinally injured group. This returned to normal values followi ng the retraining programme. The quadriceps muscle wasted to approxima tely 50% of its original thickness in the first 3 weeks following spin al cord injury. The retraining programme increased the muscle thicknes s to near normal values.