The Wheel-chair Exercise Test for Patients with Spinal Cord Injury

We employed the wheel-chair exercise test on 12 male subjects with spinal cord injury (5 upper lesion paraplegic patients; Th5 group and 7 lower lesion paraplegic patients; Th12 group) in order to obtain effective indices for the maximum volume of oxygen consumption (VO2max). The 12-minute exercise was divided into three 4-minute different load parts; 30-40, 60-70, and 90-100% of the maximum heart rate were obtained in each period. There was correlation between VO2max and the number propelled during the exercise. Th5 and Th12 groups showed VO2max of 22.1±6.5 and 31.6±3.8ml, respectively, showing a significant difference(p<0.05) when the values were compared with the estimated ones. There was no significant difference in the anaerobic metabolic threshold(AT) between two groups. With increasing exercise load, Mets was mounting rectilinearly. These results suggest that AT and the relationship between the exercise load and Mets might play an indicative role in estimating VO2max.