Transcutaneous Spinal Electrical Stimulation to Improve Exercise Function After Spinal Cord Injury.

Our overall objective is to decrease the prevalence of multiple sedentary-related diseases that are secondary consequences of spinal cord injury (SCI). SCI affects motor, sensory and autonomic systems and can cause very limited exercise capacity which then leads to very high rates of obesity, metabolic syndrome, type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This randomized controlled study aims to determine whether and how transcutaneous spinal electrical stimulation (TSES) alters acute (immediate) exercise responses in people living with SCI. Exercise responses will be tested during incremental tests to fatigue, and during steady state tests. Testing will occur over several study visits and results will be compared within each individual as well as between groups (tetraplegia and paraplegia) and to a group of reference controls. A number of outcomes will be monitored, including whole-body metabolic responses using a metabolic cart, muscle responses using EMG sensors and muscle oxygenation using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) sensors, time to fatigue, power output, as well as perceptions about fatigue and effort. The findings of this study are expected to provide evidence regarding whether and how TSES might improve acute exercise responses in people living with SCI.