The effect of an abdominal FES training protocol on pulmonary function in tetraplegia

McLachlan, A.J., Gollee, H. , McLean, A.N. and Allan, D.B. (2010) The effect of an abdominal FES training protocol on pulmonary function in tetraplegia. In: 15th Annual Conference of the International FES Society, Vienna, Austria, 8-12 Sep 2010,

Full text not currently available from Enlighten.

Abstract

Tetraplegia may result in significant paralysis of the breathing muscles. Decreased forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), peak expiratory flow rate (PEF) and maximum expiratory pressure (MEP) can result in significant respiratory compromise. It has been shown that abdominal functional electrical stimulation (FES) can augment the above measurements of pulmonary function in single session cross sectional studies. We investigate the effects of an abdominal FES training program on unassisted pulmonary function tests (PFT), FES-assisted PFT and the effectiveness of FES-assisted PFT compared to unassisted PFT. The results from six tetraplegic subjects showed increases in unassisted FVC, FEV1 and PEF and FES-assisted FVC after the training intervention, followed by a decrease during the detraining period, although only the changes in FES-assisted and unassisted FVC were found to be statistically signifi cant. Large inter and intrasubject variability was found in terms of the effectiveness of stimulation which may have affected the FES-assisted FEV1 and PEF results. We conclude that an abdominal FES training program can be used as a muscle strengthening tool that can increase unassisted PFT in tetraplegia.

Item Type:Conference Proceedings
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Gollee, Dr Henrik
Authors: McLachlan, A.J., Gollee, H., McLean, A.N., and Allan, D.B.
Subjects:R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Biomedical Engineering
Related URLs:

University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record