Aerobic Trainer with Physiological Monitoring for Exercise in Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Patients

Abstract

An aerobic exercise trainer, which can be used by both paraplegic and quadriplegic patients, is described in this paper. The aerobic trainer uses a Monarch bicycle ergo-meter which has been modified with a seat whose height is electrically adjustable, a special high back seat for back support, and break-away attachments to the pedals. Further, by incorporating sensors into the bicycle crank, timing is provided for a digital computer to stimulate the appropriate muscles in the paralyzed limbs to elicit pedaling by paraplegic and quadriplegic subjects. By stimulating the muscles in a sequence derived from electromyographic studies of nonparalyzed individuals pedaling the same bicycle ergometer, smooth control could be achieved enabling safe exercise for paraplegic and quadriplegic subjects. Further, by incorporating blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature monitoring, the system can be made safer for applications such as home use. The maximum and minimum resting and exercising blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperatures, as well as the limit of exercise that can be accomplished, are stored on a plug-in cartridge. The cartridge can either be a “read only” program, in which case the maximum limits of exercise are set, or can be an EEPROM. With the EEPROM, the user is given the option of using the cartridge to collect data during experimental sessions for play back at a later date. The applications of this design for rehabilitation medicine of spinal cord injury (SCI) patients are described.