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Hemodynamic responses to metaboreflex activation: insights from spinal cord-injured humans

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Abstract

This investigation was conducted to study the hemodynamic consequences of spinal cord injury (SCI) during post-exercise muscle metaboreflex activation in SCI subjects. The hemodynamic response to metaboreflex recruitment was assessed in ten SCI patients and nine healthy controls (CTL) by means of impedance cardiography. The main results were (1) the metaboreflex-induced blood pressure rise was blunted in SCI subjects compared with normals, (2) the CTL group achieved the blood pressure response via cardiac output increase, while the SCI subjects could not use this mechanism, (3) the CTL group was able to enhance stroke volume and ventricular filling rate in response to the metaboreflex, whereas the SCI group could not. It was concluded that in healthy individuals, the hemodynamic response to the metaboreflex is an integrated phenomenon that depends mainly on a flow-mediated mechanism, whereas in SCI individuals the reduced venous return impairs this mechanism.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the University of Cagliari, The Italian Ministry of Scientific Research and PRISMA Onlus. The authors wish to thank the members of the SA.SPO association for their collaboration during the experiments. Each subject gave written informed consent to take part in the study, which was approved by the local ethical committee and conforms to the principles of the declaration of Helsinki.

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The authors declare that the have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Human Physiology, Department of Science Applied to Biological Systems, University of Cagliari, Via Porcell 4, 09124, Cagliari, Italy

    Antonio Crisafulli, Raffaele Milia, Stefano Vitelli, Manuela Caddeo, Filippo Tocco, Franco Melis & Alberto Concu

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  1. Antonio Crisafulli
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  2. Raffaele Milia
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  3. Stefano Vitelli
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  4. Manuela Caddeo
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  5. Filippo Tocco
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  6. Franco Melis
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  7. Alberto Concu
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Correspondence to Antonio Crisafulli.

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Crisafulli, A., Milia, R., Vitelli, S. et al. Hemodynamic responses to metaboreflex activation: insights from spinal cord-injured humans. Eur J Appl Physiol 106, 525–533 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-009-1045-2

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