cute Peripheral Blood Flow Response Induced by Passive Leg ycle Exercise in People With Spinal Cord Injury

Objective: To determine the acute femoral artery hemodyamic response in paraplegic subjects during a passive leg ycle exercise. Design: Case series. Setting: Department of physical medicine and rehabilitation n a university in France. Participants: A volunteer sample of 15 people with trauatic spinal cord injury. Intervention: Subjects performed a 10-minute session of assive leg cycle exercise in the sitting position. Main Outcome Measures: We measured heart rate, maxial (Vmax), and minimal femoral artery blood flow velocity at est and immediately after the passive leg cycle exercise, using uantitative duplex Doppler ultrasound. We calculated mean lood flow velocity (Vmean) and velocity index, representing he peripheral resistance, for each condition. Results: Vmax and Vmean increased (from .80 .18m/s to 96 .24m/s, P .01; and from .058 .02m/s to .076 .03m/s, .01; respectively) after 10 minutes of passive leg cycle xercise. Heart rate did not change. The velocity index dereased from 1.23 0.15 to 1.16 0.21 (P .038). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that acute assive leg cycle exercise increases vascular blood flow velocty in paralyzed legs of people with paraplegia. This exercise ould have clinical implications for immobilized persons.