Functional electrical stimulation cycling-based muscular evaluation method in mechanically ventilated patients.

BACKGROUND: Intensive care acquired muscle weakness is a common feature in critically ill patients. Beyond the therapeutic uses, FES-cycling could represent a promising nonvolitional evaluation method for detecting acquired muscle weakness. OBJECTIVES: To assess whether FES-cycling is able to identify muscle dysfunctions, and to evaluate the survival rate in patients with detected muscle dysfunction. METHODS: A prospective observational study was carried out, with 29 critically ill patients and 20 healthy subjects. Maximum torque and power achieved were recorded, in addition to the stimulation cost, and patients were followed up for six months. RESULTS: Torque (2.64 [1.53 to 4.81] vs 6.03 [4.56 to 6.73] Nm) and power (3.31 [2.33 to 6.37] vs 6.35 [5.22 to 10.70] watts) were lower and stimulation cost (22 915 [5069 to 37 750] vs 3411 [2080 to 4024] µC/W) was higher in patients compared to healthy people (p < 0.05). Surviving patients showed a nonsignificant difference in power and torque in relation to nonsurvivors (p > 0.05), but they had a lower stimulation cost (4462 [3598 to 11 788] vs 23 538 [10 164 to 39 836] µC/W) (p < 0.05). In total, 34% of all patients survived during the six months of follow-up. Furthermore, 62% of patients with a stimulation cost below 15 371 µC/W and 7% of patients with a stimulation cost above 15 371 µC/W survived. CONCLUSIONS: FES-cycling has good sensitivity and specificity for detecting muscle disorders. Critical patients have low torque and power and a high stimulation cost. Stimulation cost is related to survival. A low stimulation cost was related to a 3 times greater chance of survival.

Previous physical exercise slows down the complications from experimental diabetes in the calcaneal tendon.

BACKGROUND: the complications caused by diabetes increase fragility in the muscle-tendon system, resulting in degeneration and easier rupture. To avoid this issue, therapies that increase the metabolism of glucose by the body, with physical activity, have been used after the confirmation of diabetes. We evaluate the biomechanical behavior of the calcaneal tendon and the metabolic parameters in rats induced to experimental diabetes and submitted to pre- and post-induction exercise. METHODS: 54-male-Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups: Control Group (CG), Swimming Group (SG), Diabetic Group (DG), and Diabetic Swimming Group (DSG). The trained groups were submitted to swimming exercise, while unexercised groups remained restricted to the cages. Metabolic and biomechanical parameters were assessed. RESULTS: the clinical parameters of DSG showed no change due to exercise protocol. The tendon analysis of the DSG showed increased values for the elastic modulus (p<0.01) and maximum tension (p<0.001) and lowest value for transverse area (p<0.001) when compared to the SG, however it showed no difference when compared to DG. CONCLUSION: the homogeneous values presented by the tendons of the DG and DSG show that physical exercise applied in the pre- and post-induction wasn't enough to promote a protective effect against the tendinopathy process, but prevent the progress of degeneration.