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. 2021 Jul 24;21(15):5022.
doi: 10.3390/s21155022.

Cardiorespiratory Responses to 10 Weeks of Exoskeleton-Assisted Overground Walking Training in Chronic Nonambulatory Patients with Spinal Cord Injury

Jae Hyeon Park  1 , Hyeon Seong Kim  2 , Seong Ho Jang  1   2 , Dong Jin Hyun  3 , Sang In Park  3 , JuYoung Yoon  3 , Hyunseop Lim  3 , Mi Jung Kim  2
Affiliations

Cardiorespiratory Responses to 10 Weeks of Exoskeleton-Assisted Overground Walking Training in Chronic Nonambulatory Patients with Spinal Cord Injury

Jae Hyeon Park et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Exercise intensity of exoskeleton-assisted walking in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) has been reported as moderate. However, the cardiorespiratory responses to long-term exoskeleton-assisted walking have not been sufficiently investigated. We investigated the cardiorespiratory responses to 10 weeks of exoskeleton-assisted walking training in patients with SCI. Chronic nonambulatory patients with SCI were recruited from an outpatient clinic. Walking training with an exoskeleton was conducted three times per week for 10 weeks. Oxygen consumption and heart rate (HR) were measured during a 6-min walking test at pre-, mid-, and post-training. Exercise intensity was determined according to the metabolic equivalent of tasks (METs) for SCI and HR relative to the HR reserve (%HRR). Walking efficiency was calculated as oxygen consumption divided by walking speed. The exercise intensity according to the METs (both peak and average) corresponded to moderate physical activity and did not change after training. The %HRR demonstrated a moderate (peak %HRR) and light (average %HRR) exercise intensity level, and the average %HRR significantly decreased at post-training compared with mid-training (31.6 ± 8.9% to 24.3 ± 7.3%, p = 0.013). Walking efficiency progressively improved after training. Walking with an exoskeleton for 10 weeks may affect the cardiorespiratory system in chronic patients with SCI.

Keywords: exoskeleton; heart rate; oxygen consumption; spinal cord injury; walking.

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Conflict of interest statement

As employees of the R&D division of Hyundai Motor Company, D.J. Hyun, S. Park, J. Yoon, and H. Lim have received salary support from Hyundai Motor Company. The other authors have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Exoskeleton-assisted overground walking with a portable gas analyzer.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Changes in exercise intensity measured according to the (a) peak and (b) average (avg) metabolic equivalent of tasks (METs) for persons with spinal cord injury, (c) peak and (d) average heart rate relative to the heart rate reserve (%HRR), and (e) O2 cost of walking measured using oxygen consumption (VO2avg in mL/kg/min) divided by walking speed (m/min) (O2walking).
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