A simple means of increasing muscle size after spinal cord injury: a pilotstudy

This study tested that hypothesis that skeletal muscle within a year of spi nal cord injury (SCI) would respond to intermittent high force loading by s howing an increase in size. Three males about 46 weeks post clinically comp lete SCI underwent surface electrical stimulation of their left or right m. quadriceps femoris 2 days per week for 8 weeks to evoke 4 sets of ten isom etric or dynamic actions each session. Conditioning increased average cross -sectional area of m. quadriceps femoris, assessed by magnetic resonance im aging, by 20 +/- 1% (p = 0.0103). This reversed 48 weeks of atrophy such th at m, quadriceps femoris 54 weeks after SCI was the same size as when the p atients were first studied 6 weeks after injury. The results suggest that s keletal muscle is remarkably responsive to intermittent, high force loading after almost one year of Little if any contractile activity.