Catecholamines response of high performance wheelchair athletes at rest and during exercise with autonomic dysreflexia

Autonomic dysreflexia presents a special situation in high-lesion spinal co rd injury, however, intentionally or self-induced autonomic dysreflexia dir ectly before or during competition to increase performance, so called 'boos ting', is also being reported. In order to examine the influence of autonom ic dysreflexia on plasma catecholamines, cardiocirculatory and metabolic pa rameters, 6 spinal cord injured wheelchair athletes with high-level lesions underwent wheelchair ergometry without (ST1) and with (STZ) autonomic dysr eflexia. At the point of exhaustion significantly higher values for norepin ephrine and epinephrine were observed in STZ than in ST1. During autonomic dysreflexia a significantly higher peak performance (77.5 vs. 72.5 watt), h igher peak heart rate (161 vs. 149 x min(-1)), and peak oxygen consumption (1.96 vs. 1.85 l x min(-1)), with comparable peak lactate (7.11 vs. 7.00 mm ol x l(-1)) were reached on average. The blood pressure values in STZ were partially hypertensive and higher than in ST1. In conclusion, autonomic dys reflexia, as a sympathetic spinal reflex, leads to a higher release of cate cholamines during exercise. This results in higher peak performance, peak h eart rate, peak oxygen consumption, and higher blood pressure values. The p eak lactate, as an indicator of the anaerobic lactate metabolism, was uncha nged. However, autonomic dysreflexia presents an unpredictable risk, caused predominantly by hypertensive blood pressure values, for high-lesion spina l cord injured persons at rest and more so during exercise: it is seen as a prohibited manipulation by the doping guidelines of the International Para lympic Committee.