Acute effects of locomotor training on overground walking speed and H-reflex modulation in individuals with incomplete spinal cord injury.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of a single bout of a locomotor-training paradigm on overground walking speed and H-reflex modulation of individuals with incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI).

METHODS

Self-selected and maximum walking speeds and soleus H-reflexes (H/M ratios) during standing and stance and swing phases of walking (self-selected velocity) were obtained from 4 individuals with American Spinal Injury Association impairment classification D. Data were collected immediately before and after a single bout of locomotor training with body weight support on a treadmill. The pretraining H/M ratios of the SCI subjects were also compared with values from 4 able-bodied subjects who did not receive the intervention. Maximum H/M ratios while standing and during midstance and midswing phases of overground walking were considerably greater in the SCI subjects than in the control subjects.

RESULTS

After the single bout of training, self-selected and maximum overground walking speeds of the subjects with SCI increased by 26% and 25%, respectively. Furthermore, H-reflexes were significantly more depressed in the SCI subjects during overground walking (28% less during stance, 34% less during swing).

CONCLUSIONS

Although preliminary, these findings indicate that a single bout of locomotor training produced immediate increases in walking velocity and acute neurophysiologic changes in individuals with incomplete SCI.