Body temperature regulation and circulatory response of persons with spinal cord injury during exercise in a hot environment.

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The purpose of this investigation was to clarify the characteristics of body temperature regulation in paraplegics due to spinal cord injury (SCI) during arm cranking exercise in a hot environment. Adult male SCI with lesions located between T3 and L5 and adult male able-bodied subjects (AB) participated in this study. The subjects were exposed to a hot (33℃) or a moderate temperature (25℃) environment for one hour. During the last 5 or 30 min of the exposure, the subject performed arm cranking exercises for 5 min at an exercise intensity of 40 W or for 30 min at 20 W.The skin temperature at six sites of the body, the tympanic membrane temperature, the skin blood flow of the thigh (SBFT), and heart rate were continuously monitored during the experiment. Paraplegics with high lesion (T3-T10) showed the higher tympanic membrane temperature and heart rate than those with low lesions (T11-L5) at rest and during exercise. SBFT of paraplegics with high lesion remained unchanged during the experiment at 33℃, while paraplegics with low lesions showed consecutive increases in SBFT during exercise similar to AB.In paraplegics with high lesions, who have impaired sympathetic vasomotor function in the lower limbs, skin blood flow is unchanged by exposure to a high temperature. The increased core temperature in paraplegics with high lesions was considered to be due to lack of a vasomotor activity and a sweat response in the paralyzed area. On the basis of the findings in this study, it can be suggested that high core temperature without any increment of SBFT may be characterized as body heat balance of paraplegics with high lesions during exercise in a hot environment.