Assessing cardiovascular fitness of patients with spinal cord injury at CRP, Bangladesh compare with normal population

Abstract

Introduction: Spinal cord injury(SCI) is a devastating condition that can affect any individual in any stage of life. Cardiovascular fitness is the ability of the heart, blood cells and lungs to supply oxygen-rich blood to the working muscle tissues and the ability of the muscles to use oxygen to produce energy for movement(Mairbäurl, 2013). Poor cardiovascular fitness is an impairment which commonly prevent patient with spinal cord injury to perform various motor task(Ditor et al., 2003) The aim of this study is to find out the level of cardiovascular fitness of spinal cord injury patient who can perform walking and compare the cardiovascular fitness with people without spinal cord injury with their same age General Objectives: 1. To compare the level of cardiovascular fitness of patient with spinal cord injury at CRP with normal population 2. To measure the cardiovascular fitness in respective of VO2max, 3. To compare the cardiovascular fitness with non SCI people 4. To measure walking speed of patient with SCI and non SCI population 5. To measure the BMI of person with and without SCI Methodology: Case control method was used to fulfill the objective of this study. 25 patients with SCI who can walk with or without assistive device were selected as case and 25 normal populations with same age group without SCI around CRP were selected as control. Both group were performed a two minute and 10 Meter walk test. Heart rate were measured before ending and after two minute of walking test. BMI was calculated from height and weight of the participants. Result: Mean age of the participants was 28±5 in both case and control group. Among case majority was paraplegic were 68 % and Incomplete D were 80 %. In fitness case mean VO2 max was 39.34±5.2 ml/kg/m and in control group 38.48±4.5 ml/kg/m. There were no significant association between case/control with Vo2max score. Vo2max had strong negative co relation (r=-.94) with resting heart rate and weak co relation with age, BMI and walking speed. In age range 25 to 30 year cases sample had highest mean VO2max score(39.96), and in control group this age range were 20-25 years(40.84). VO2max had strong association with type of injury and AIS B had significantly low VO2max score. Conclusion This study found no significant relationship between case and control groups with fitness of VO2max. Significant association found between VO2max and types of injury and it also differ with neurological level of injury. Researcher didn’t found any positive co relationship of VO2max with BMI, AGE, and walking distance and speed. Average VO2max score was lower in both case and control group. Further study with larger sample size in community environment can be done to find out the actual relationship between Vo2max and spinal cord injury. Key words: Spinal Cord Injury, cardiovascular fitness, fitness assessment, VO2max