Medicine and science in sports and exercise
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Med Sci Sports Exerc · Jan 2014
Physical activity and improved diastolic function in spinal cord-injured subjects.
Subjects with spinal cord injury (SCI) have been reported to present impaired left ventricular (LV) diastolic function in comparison with able-bodied (AB) ones. The present study investigated the effect of regular physical activity on the cardiac structure and function of SCI subjects. ⋯ Regular physical activity is associated with improved LV diastolic function in SCI subjects and might exert distinct cardiac structural effects in tetraplegic and paraplegic subjects.
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Med Sci Sports Exerc · Jan 2014
Pain relief after isometric exercise is not task-dependent in older men and women.
This study assessed the effect of isometric contractions that varied in intensity and duration on pain perception in adults older than 60 yr. ⋯ Older adults experienced similar reductions in pain after several different intensities and durations of isometric contractions. Both older men and women experienced increases in pain threshold, but only older women experienced reductions in pain ratings.
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Med Sci Sports Exerc · Jan 2014
Autonomic cardiovascular control in Paralympic athletes with spinal cord injury.
Disruption of autonomic control after spinal cord injury (SCI) results in life-threatening cardiovascular dysfunctions and impaired endurance performance; hence, an improved ability to recognize those at risk of autonomic disturbances is of critical clinical and sporting importance. ⋯ We demonstrate for the first time that neurological level and SSR score provide the optimal combination of assessments to identify those at risk of abnormal cardiovascular control. We advocate the use of autonomic testing in the clinical and sporting classification of SCI athletes.
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Med Sci Sports Exerc · Jan 2014
Validation of a helmet-based system to measure head impact biomechanics in ice hockey.
This study aimed to quantify differences between head acceleration measured by a helmet-based accelerometer system for ice hockey and an anthropometric test device (ATD) to validate the system's use in measuring on-ice head impacts. ⋯ This is the first comprehensive evaluation of peak head acceleration measured by the HIT System for hockey. The HIT System processing algorithm removed 19% of the impacts from the data set, the correlation between HIT System and reference peak resultant acceleration was strong and varied by head surface and impact direction, and the system error was larger than reported for the 6-degree-of-freedom HIT System for football but could be reduced via calibration factors. These findings must be considered when interpreting on-ice data.