Factors influencing thigh muscle volume change with cycling exercises in acute spinal cord injury–a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Objective: To conduct a per-protocol analysis on thigh muscle volume outcomes from the Spinal Cord Injury and Physical Activity (SCIPA) Switch-On Trial. Design: Secondary analysis from an assessor-blind randomized, controlled trial. Setting: Four acute/sub-acute hospitals in Australia and New Zealand. Participants: 24 adults (1 female) within four weeks of motor complete or incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) Intervention: Functional electrical stimulation–assisted cycling (FESC) or passive cycling (PC) 4x/week for 12 weeks. Outcome Measures: Whole thigh and muscle group volumes calculated from manually segmented MR images. Results: 19/24 participants completed ≥ twelve weeks of the interven..