Sweat rate and rectal and skin temperatures in tetraplegic men during exercise

Abstract

Three endurance‐trained tetraplegic men with spinal cord lesions complete (C) at C5/6, and incomplete (I/C) at C5/6 and C6/7 pushed their sport wheelchairs on a motor‐driven treadmill at a pace simulating a competitive 5 km race. Rate of oxygen consumption, ventilation per minute, carbon dioxide output, and heart rate were measured at selected times. Rectal (T_rec) and skin temperatures (T_sk), measured at head, back, chest, abdomen, thigh, and calf, were monitored throughout. Forehead sweat rate (SR) was calculated at the beginning of exercise and at 5‐minute intervals. The environment was controlled at 23°C dry bulb, 17°C wet bulb. The heart rate response throughout the exercise indicated little evidence of cardiovascular drift. The highest T_rec recorded was 37.08°C and this occurred 2 minutes postexercise in the C6/7 (I/C) subject. The lowest T_rec (36.50°C) was also recorded in C6/7 (I/C) subject prior to exercise. The calf T_sk showed little change during the exercise for the C5/6 tetraplegic men. No sweating was observed for the C5/6 (C) and (I/C) subjects. SR of 1.1 mg · min⁻¹ · cm⁻² was observed at the 25th minute for the C6/7 (I/C) subject. These results suggest that hyperthermia is not a major concern when tetraplegics exercise at a competitive intensity for up to 30 minutes under neutral environmental conditions.

Keywords:

• oxygen consumption
• spinal injury
• core temperature
• quadriplegia
• exercise