Cardiovascular autonomic function in middle-aged people with long-term cervical and upper thoracic spinal cord injuries.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To examine cardiovascular autonomic function in middle-aged people with long-term cervical and upper thoracic spinal cord injury (SCI) compared with the general population, and explore if the neurological level of injury (NLI) is related to cardiovascular autonomic function.

Design

Population-based cross-sectional study with matched controls.

Setting

Outpatient SCI unit in Southern Sweden.

Participants

Twenty-five individuals (20% women, mean age 58 years and mean time since injury 28 years, NLI C2-T6, American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale A-C) from the Swedish SPinal Cord Injury Study on Cardiopulmonary and Autonomic Impairment (SPICA). Matched controls were obtained from the population-based Swedish CArdioPulmonary bioImage Study (SCA

SUBMITTER: Hill M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12035942 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature