Post-exercise heart rate recovery in individuals with spinal cord injury

Study design: Prospective comparison of spinal cord injured (SCI) subjects and ambulatory subjects. Objectives: To determine the effects of the presence and level of SCI on heart rate recovery (HRR). Setting: Outpatient SCI center. Methods: HRR was determined in 63 SCI subjects (26 with tetraplegia, 22 with high-level paraplegia, 15 with low-level paraplegia) and 26 ambulatory subjects. To adjust for differences in heart rate reserve between groups (HRpeak minus HRrest), HRR was also ‘normalized’ to a range of 1 at peak heart rate and to 0 at 8 min, and the shapes of HRR curves were compared. Results: Although absolute HRR was similar between high- and low-level paraplegia, it was significantly more rapid in participants with paraplegia at 2, 5 and 8 min after exercise than in those with tetraplegia (39±14 vs 29±14 b.p.m., P