Dual motor cortex and spinal cord neuromodulation improves rehabilitation efficacy and restores skilled locomotor function in a rat cervical contusion injury model.

Motor recovery after spinal cord injury is limited due to sparse descending pathway axons caudal to the injury. Rehabilitation is the primary treatment for paralysis in humans with SCI, but only produces modest functional recovery. Here, we determined if dual epidural motor cortex (M1) intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) and cathodal transcutaneous spinal direct stimulation (tsDCS) enhances the efficacy of rehabilitation in improving motor function after cervical SCI.

Cardiac parasympathetic activity and ventricular diastolic interactions in individuals with spinal cord injury.

Study Design: Cohort cross-sectional study.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between cardiac vagal activity and left ventricular filling at rest and during vagal stimulation, via the cold face test (CFT), in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Setting: University-based laboratory at Brock University, St.

A call to reevaluate cardiac autonomic assessment after spinal cord injury.

This "Perspectives" article puts forward the notion that measuring heart rate variability, or other forms of cardiac autonomic regulation, after spinal cord injury must be performed during a test of autonomic stress. Resting values of heart rate variability are often similar to those obtained from able-bodied individuals, which may therefore be falsely interpreted as normal or healthy autonomic regulation. However, evidence shows that despite normal resting values, cardiac autonomic control is impaired when individual with spinal cord injury are subjected to a cold face test, head-up tilt, or recovery from exercise.

Layer-specific systolic and diastolic strain in hypertensive patients with and without mild diastolic dysfunction.

This study sought to examine layer-specific longitudinal and circumferential systolic and diastolic strain, strain rate (SR) and diastolic time intervals in hypertensive patients with and without diastolic dysfunction. Fifty-eight treated hypertensive patients were assigned to normal diastolic function (NDF,  = 39) or mild diastolic dysfunction (DD,  = 19) group. Layer-specific systolic and diastolic longitudinal and circumferential strains and SR were assessed.

Autonomic dysreflexia: a cardiovascular disorder following spinal cord injury.

Autonomic dysreflexia (AD) is a serious cardiovascular disorder in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). The primary underlying cause of AD is loss of supraspinal control over sympathetic preganglionic neurons (SPNs) caudal to the injury, which renders the SPNs hyper-responsive to stimulation. Central maladaptive plasticity, including C-fiber sprouting and propriospinal fiber proliferation exaggerates noxious afferent transmission to the SPNs, causing them to release massive sympathetic discharges that result in severe hypertensive episodes.

Reproducibility of the QT-variability index in individuals with spinal cord injury.

Purpose: To examine the day-to-day reproducibility of the QT-variability index (QTVI) and the QT-apex variability index (QTaVI) in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Methods: Ten individuals with SCI participated in the current study (C2-T10; AIS A-D; 8.6 ± 7.

The influence of cardiac autonomic activity on the QT-variability index in able-bodied and incomplete spinal cord injured individuals.

Objectives: To investigate, via autonomic blockade, if the QT-variability index (QTVI) is a measure of cardiac autonomic regulation in able-bodied (AB) and incomplete spinal cord injured (SCI) individuals.

Methods: Four SCI (41.6±13.

Effects of FES-Ambulation Training on Locomotor Function and Health-Related Quality of Life in Individuals With Spinal Cord Injury.

Background: The combination of body weight-supported gait training with functional electrical stimulation (FES) may provide the optimal stimulus for improving overground walking after spinal cord injury (SCI). This potential benefit is likely due to the combination of specificity with the maximization of muscle contractions.

Objectives: To investigate the effects of 12 weeks of FES-ambulation on overground walking and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in individuals with SCI.