Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Structural And Functional Myocardial Adaptations To Task-Specific Epidural Stimulation In Chronic Spinal Cord Injury., Harley D. Ledbetter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of mortality, and this is especially true in individuals with spinal cord injury. Decreased systemic blood pressure leads to cardiac deconditioning, thought to be related to the increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in this population. This study investigates effects of myocardial loading from epidural stimulation in a group of individuals with spinal cord injury to understand how changes in preload and afterload could lead to beneficial myocardial remodeling. The study conducted echocardiograms to describe the myocardial changes after training with two different types of epidural stimulation intervention: one designed to facilitate movement (Voluntary) and …