Is There A Correlation Of Muscle Strength With Respect To Energy Expenditure And Ambulatory Capacity In Patients With Spinal Cord Injury?

ABSTRACT

Background: Following the Spinal Cord Injury, patient’s ability for gait and endurance is been limited. Hence this further causes difficulty in managing activities of daily living and transfers. Thus reducing the ambulatory capacity and increasing patients dependability to be wheelchair bond and significantly affecting the use of lower limb muscle strength. This will eventually land in secondary complications. Muscle strengthening has been proved to be one of the important intervention. The purpose of this study is to quantify muscle strength with respect to its energy expenditure and later target those muscle group in improving their ambulatory capacity. Materials and Methods: Seventeen incomplete spinal cord injury patients were recruited. Their initial pre-assessment was done. Muscle strength and Ambulatory capacity was graded using Manual Muscle Testing and Ambulatory Capacity grading. Energy expenditure was calculated using Physiological Cost Index. Initial heart rate at rest was taken. Later subject had to walk for six minutes and post heart rate and laps were taken. Using Mac-Gregor equation energy expenditure was calculated. Results: The results interpreted that muscle strength to physiological cost index is negative correlation and to ambulatory capacity it is a positive correlation. Conclusion: There is correlation of muscle strength with respect to energy expenditure and ambulatory capacity in an incomplete spinal cord injury.