Comparing Spontaneous Neurovascular and Neurohemodynamic Sympathetic Transduction in Response to Hypoxia.

Assessment of sympathetic transduction into its effects on the cardiovascular system is of great interest in human research. Analysis of sympathetic transduction has been divided into neurovascular and neurohemodynamic, highlighting the sympathetic effect on either regional vascular or systemic pressure responses. This study investigates whether indices of neurovascular transduction are reflected in parallel neurohemodynamic transduction during normoxia and hypoxia, with and without accounting for the confounds of prevailing tachypnea and tachycardia.

Evidence of myogenic vasoconstriction in human bone vasculature.

Despite the critical importance of blood flow for bone, mechanisms regulating bone vasculature are poorly understood. Myogenic vasoconstriction is an important regulatory mechanism that is engaged in most daily activities, but our understanding primarily derives from animal work and/or other vascular beds. In young healthy adults, we employed two levels of leg dependency to engage myogenic vasoconstriction.

The role of sympathetic control in bone vasculature: insights from spinal cord injury.

Bone vasculature is richly innervated by an extensive network of sympathetic nerves. However, our understanding of bone blood flow regulation and its contribution to human bone health is limited. Here, we further our previous findings by characterizing bone vascular responses in the absence of sympathetic control-studying individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI), a population with known peripheral sympathetic disruption.

Prior Concussion History and Clinical Recovery Following Sport-Related Concussion in College Athletes.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess whether a history of prior concussions, and especially multiple prior concussions, is associated with clinical recovery following a subsequent sport-related concussion among collegiate student athletes.

Design: A naturalistic observational cohort study.

Setting: Eleven National Collegiate Athletics Association Division III colleges.

Responses to Valsalva's maneuver in spinal cord injury do not broadly relate to vasoconstrictor capacity.

Purpose: A blood pressure stabilization during late phase II of Valsalva's maneuver may be utilized to confirm sympathetic vasoconstrictor control after a spinal cord injury. This study investigated whether Valsalva response was predictive of hemodynamics during tilt or isometric handgrip.

Methods: Presence/absence of Valsalva response was compared to heart rate, mean arterial pressure, leg blood flow, and vascular resistance during head-up tilt and isometric handgrip to fatigue in 14 adults with spinal cord injury from C7 to T12 and 14 controls.

Cardiorespiratory Effects of Yogic Versus Slow Breathing in Individuals with a Spinal Cord Injury: An Exploratory Cohort Study.

An intricate physiological and pathophysiological connection exists between the heart and lungs, which is especially important in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). While an exercise intervention may seem the best approach to leverage this relationship, the prior work has shown that, despite numerous health benefits, regular exercise training does not improve cardiorespiratory control in individuals with SCI. Breath training presents an alternative intervention that is uniquely accessible, with yogic breathing directly engaging linked fluctuations in respiration and cardiovascular control.

Epidural Spinal Cord Stimulation for Spinal Cord Injury in Humans: A Systematic Review.

(1) Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) represents a major health challenge, often leading to significant and permanent sensorimotor and autonomic dysfunctions. This study reviews the evolving role of epidural spinal cord stimulation (eSCS) in treating chronic SCI, focusing on its efficacy and safety. The objective was to analyze how eSCS contributes to the recovery of neurological functions in SCI patients.

Nitric oxide-mediated vasodilation in human bone.

Objective: Regulation of blood flow to bone is critical but poorly understood, particularly in humans. This study aims to determine whether nitric oxide (NO), a major regulator of vascular tone to other tissues, contributes also to the regulation of blood flow to bone.

Methods: In young healthy adults (n = 16, 8F, 8M), we characterized NO-mediated vasodilation in the tibia in response to sublingual nitroglycerin and contrasted it to lower leg.

Regulation of cerebrovascular compliance compared with forearm vascular compliance in humans: a pharmacological study.

Increasing evidence indicates that cerebrovascular compliance contributes to the dynamic regulation of cerebral blood flow but the mechanisms regulating cerebrovascular compliance in humans are unknown. This retrospective study investigated the impact of neural, endothelial, and myogenic mechanisms on the regulation of vascular compliance in the cerebral vascular bed compared with the forearm vascular bed. An index of vascular compliance () was assessed using a Windkessel model applied to blood pressure waveforms (finger photoplethysmography) and corresponding middle cerebral artery blood velocity or brachial artery blood velocity waveforms (Doppler ultrasound).

Non-Operative Management of Symptomatic Hallux Limitus: A Novel Approach of Foot Core Stabilization and Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy.

Background: This video presents assessment and management of hallux limitus using intrinsic foot strengthening and joint mobilization techniques with combination of extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT).

Indications: Clinical history includes pain with walking, running, jumping, or loaded plantarflexion localized to the first metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint. Indications for our treatment approach of hallux limitus include pain localized to the first MTP joint, corresponding lack of active range of motion/passive range of motion, and reduced foot/ankle strength often with joint space narrowing on imaging.

Effect of hybrid FES exercise on body composition during the sub-acute phase of spinal cord injury.

Objectives: To determine the Effect of Hybrid functional electrically stimulated (FES) Exercise on Body Composition during the Sub-acute Phase of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI).

Design: Randomized Clinical Trial.

Setting: Rehabilitation Hospital.

Mechanisms of bone blood flow regulation in humans.

Bone is a highly vascularized tissue. However, despite the importance of appropriate circulation for bone health, regulation of bone blood flow remains poorly understood. Invasive animal studies suggest that sympathetic activity plays an important role in bone flow control.

Cardiovagal baroreflex gain relates to sensory loss after spinal cord injury.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to autonomic nervous system damage, resulting in loss of sympathetic control to the vasculature and the heart proportional to injury level. Given maintained cardiac parasympathetic control, we hypothesized that SCI demonstrates a compensatory, higher baroreflex gain compared to able-bodied that relates to injury level (neurological and/or sensory). We compared baroreflex gain (average and across 10-20, 20-30, and 30-40 mmHg input stimuli) derived from neck chamber technique in SCI (N = 29; neurological level C1-T10, sensory zone of partial preservation C4-S4/5; ≤2 yrs since injury) and able-bodied (N = 14).

Muscle Fatigue in Response to Electrical Stimulation Pattern and Frequency in Spinal Cord Injury.

Background: Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is widely used to induce functional movements for paralyzed muscles. However, rapid muscle fatigue during FES-induced muscle contractions limits FES clinical efficacy.

Objective: To investigate muscle fatigue response across stimulation patterns and frequencies during FES in able-bodied individuals and in those with spinal cord injury (SCI).

A pilot randomized controlled trial of 6-week combined exercise program on fasting insulin and fitness levels in individuals with spinal cord injury.

Purpose: The aim of this randomized controlled trial study was to investigate the effect of combined exercise program on the fasting insulin and fitness levels of people with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Methods: A total of 19 individuals with SCI participated in a combined exercise program consisting of aerobic and resistance exercises for 60 min per day, 3 days per week for 6 weeks. Peak oxygen consumption, body mass index, percent body fat, waist circumference, shoulder abduction and adduction, shoulder flexion and extension, elbow flexion and extension, fasting insulin levels, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) levels were measured at baseline and after the intervention.

The Role of Aerobic Exercise in Reducing Persistent Sport-related Concussion Symptoms.

Aerobic exercise has received increasing attention in the scientific literature as a component of management for individuals who sustain a concussion. Because exercise training has been reported to reduce symptoms and improve function for those experiencing persistent postconcussion symptoms, it represents a potentially useful and clinically pragmatic rehabilitation technique. However, the specific exercise parameters that best facilitate recovery from concussion remain poorly defined and unclear.

Augmenting exercise capacity with noninvasive ventilation in high-level spinal cord injury.

High-level spinal cord injury (SCI) results in a very limited innervated skeletal muscle mass that strongly reduces exercise capacity. Our recent work showed that when adding functional electrical stimulation (FES) of the paralyzed legs (hybrid FES-exercise) to produce higher exercise capacity, peak ventilation became a limiting factor to training-induced improvement in aerobic capacity. Our assumption was that the systemic adaptations to exercise training are delimited by the maximal ventilation that can be achieved.

Relationship of Spinal Cord Injury Level and Duration to Peak Aerobic Capacity With Arms-Only and Hybrid Functional Electrical Stimulation Rowing.

Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the relationship of spinal cord injury level and duration to peak aerobic capacities during arms-only rowing compared with hybrid Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES)-rowing.

Design: Comparison of peak aerobic capacity (VO2), peak ventilation, peak respiratory exchange ratio, and peak heart rate were measured during arms-only rowing and FES-rowing obtained from graded exercise tests.

Results: Peak aerobic values were strongly related to injury level and injury duration for both arms-only rowing (r = 0.

Six weeks of combined aerobic and resistance exercise using outdoor exercise machines improves fitness, insulin resistance, and chemerin in the Korean elderly: A pilot randomized controlled trial.

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a six-week-long exercise program using outdoor exercise equipment on fitness, insulin resistance and adipocytokines among Korean elderly.

Methods: A total of 47 participants were randomized into one of the following three groups; control, resistance exercise or combined exercise (aerobic and resistance exercise). The resistance exercise group completed three resistance types of exercise.

Slow Yogic Breathing and Long-Term Cardiac Autonomic Adaptations: A Pilot Study.

Objectives: To examine whether long-term practice of yogic breathing alters cardiac autonomic control.

Design: Age-sex matched, cross-sectional, physiologic pilot study.

Settings/location: Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Cardiovascular Laboratory, Cambridge, MA.

The association between resting heart rate and type 2 diabetes and hypertension in Korean adults.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyse the association between resting heart rate (RHR) and type 2 diabetes and hypertension in Korean adults.

Methods: A total of 5124 participants, who participated in the exercise programme at the National Health Promotion Center between 2007 and 2010 (male=904, female=4220) were analysed in this study. Anthropometrics, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure (BP) and RHR were measured, and blood samples were collected after fasting for at least 12 hours.

Physical Activity Level and Symptom Duration Are Not Associated After Concussion.

Background: Physical rest after a concussion has been described as a key component in the management of the injury. Evidence supporting this recommendation, however, is limited.

Purpose: To examine the association between physical activity and symptom duration in a cohort of patients after a concussion.