Evaluating the health and fitness benefits of a 6-month FES-cycling program on a recumbent trike for individuals with motor complete SCI: a pilot study.

IF 5.2 2区 医学 Q1 ENGINEERING, BIOMEDICAL Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation Pub Date : 2025-03-10 DOI:10.1186/s12984-025-01585-0
N Sanna, R Nossa, E Biffi, E Guanziroli, E Diella, S Ferrante, F Molteni, D Peruzzo, N Casali, A Mastropietro, G Rizzo, M Tarabini, A Pedrocchi, E Ambrosini
{"title":"Evaluating the health and fitness benefits of a 6-month FES-cycling program on a recumbent trike for individuals with motor complete SCI: a pilot study.","authors":"N Sanna, R Nossa, E Biffi, E Guanziroli, E Diella, S Ferrante, F Molteni, D Peruzzo, N Casali, A Mastropietro, G Rizzo, M Tarabini, A Pedrocchi, E Ambrosini","doi":"10.1186/s12984-025-01585-0","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Spinal cord injury (SCI) severely affects physical function, leading to muscle atrophy and reduced bone density. Sport-therapy, incorporating recreational and competitive activities, has shown promise in enhancing recovery for individuals with SCI. Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES)-cycling combines exercise benefits with stimulation advantages, and recent integration with mobile recumbent trikes adds further potential. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a 6-month FES-cycling sport therapy using a recumbent trike on individuals with motor complete SCI.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Five participants engaged in bi-weekly FES-cycling sessions using an instrumented recumbent trike. A comprehensive assessment was conducted before training, at 3 and 6 months of training, and at 1-month follow-up. Outcome measures included maximal muscle Cross-Sectional Area (maxCSA) from Magnetic Resonance Images, bone mineral density, clinical scales, and questionnaires on spasticity, pain, bowel dysfunction, psychological well-being, and sport motivation. Additionally, maximal power output and cycling endurance were assessed.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The FES-cycling program led to a significant increase in muscle mass of 34% after 6 months of training, correlated to an improved cycling performance (maxCSA versus peak power). A slight decrease of muscle mass was observed as expected at follow-up. Participants reported high well-being and strong motivation throughout the training program. Bone health, spasticity, bowel dysfunction, and pain levels did not significantly change overall.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>FES-cycling on a recumbent trike shows potential as a therapeutic and recreational activity for individuals with SCI. It significantly improved muscle mass and physical performance while positively impacting psychological well-being and motivation. Further research with larger cohorts is necessary to confirm these benefits and optimize protocols, establishing FES-cycling as a valuable sport-therapy model for SCI.</p><p><strong>Trial registration: </strong>The study protocol was retrospectively registered on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT06321172).</p>","PeriodicalId":16384,"journal":{"name":"Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation","volume":"22 1","pages":"55"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11892226/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-025-01585-0","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, BIOMEDICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) severely affects physical function, leading to muscle atrophy and reduced bone density. Sport-therapy, incorporating recreational and competitive activities, has shown promise in enhancing recovery for individuals with SCI. Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES)-cycling combines exercise benefits with stimulation advantages, and recent integration with mobile recumbent trikes adds further potential. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a 6-month FES-cycling sport therapy using a recumbent trike on individuals with motor complete SCI.

Methods: Five participants engaged in bi-weekly FES-cycling sessions using an instrumented recumbent trike. A comprehensive assessment was conducted before training, at 3 and 6 months of training, and at 1-month follow-up. Outcome measures included maximal muscle Cross-Sectional Area (maxCSA) from Magnetic Resonance Images, bone mineral density, clinical scales, and questionnaires on spasticity, pain, bowel dysfunction, psychological well-being, and sport motivation. Additionally, maximal power output and cycling endurance were assessed.

Results: The FES-cycling program led to a significant increase in muscle mass of 34% after 6 months of training, correlated to an improved cycling performance (maxCSA versus peak power). A slight decrease of muscle mass was observed as expected at follow-up. Participants reported high well-being and strong motivation throughout the training program. Bone health, spasticity, bowel dysfunction, and pain levels did not significantly change overall.

Conclusions: FES-cycling on a recumbent trike shows potential as a therapeutic and recreational activity for individuals with SCI. It significantly improved muscle mass and physical performance while positively impacting psychological well-being and motivation. Further research with larger cohorts is necessary to confirm these benefits and optimize protocols, establishing FES-cycling as a valuable sport-therapy model for SCI.

Trial registration: The study protocol was retrospectively registered on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT06321172).

查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation
Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation 工程技术-工程:生物医学
CiteScore
9.60
自引率
3.90%
发文量
122
审稿时长
24 months
期刊介绍: Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation considers manuscripts on all aspects of research that result from cross-fertilization of the fields of neuroscience, biomedical engineering, and physical medicine & rehabilitation.
期刊最新文献
Wearable fall risk assessment by discriminating recessive weak foot individual. Imu-based kinematic analysis to enhance upper limb motor function assessment in neuromuscular diseases. Investigating the cortical effect of false positive feedback on motor learning in motor imagery based rehabilitative BCI training. Therapeutic and orthotic effects of an adaptive functional electrical stimulation system on gait biomechanics in participants with stroke. A motor unit action potential-based method for surface electromyography decomposition.
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1