Friday, Sept 8 McKinly Lab 333 3-4pm refreshments and Texas Hold'em
prior
Sam Lee, PT, PhD
Shriners Hospital of Philadelphia
Dept of Physical Therapy, UD
Title: Strength Training NMES for Children with Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy (CP) has the highest lifetime economic cost and net cost
of medical care compared to the most common birth defects. Reduced
muscle strength affects functional abilities in children with CP.
Volitional strength training in children with CP can produce
substantial gains in force production with concomitant gains in
function. Volitional strength training, however, may not be optimal for
producing strength gains in this population due to reduced voluntary
muscle activation. Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES)
activates a greater number of motor units and produces higher firing
rates of the active motor units than can be obtained volitionally.
Thus, NMES may offer advantages over volitional exercise programs for
producing gains in force production.
The proposed research is designed to develop improved rehabilitation
techniques for children with CP. This study compares the effects of a
12-week NMES isometric strength-training program to 12 weeks of
traditional isometric strength training in children with CP. A noexercise control group with CP will also be studied. The specific aims
are: 1) To compare the force generating, volitional activation,
contractile and fatigue characteristics of the quadriceps femoris and
triceps surae muscles in typically developing children and children
with CP; 2) to assess the ability of NMES strength training to increase
quadriceps femoris and triceps surae muscle force-generating ability as
compared to volitional strength training and a no-exercise control
group in children with CP; 3) to assess the mechanisms underlying
improvements in force-generating ability of the quadriceps femoris and
triceps surae after strength training in children with CP; and 4) to
assess the ability of strength training to improve gross motor function
and gait in children with CP.
This work will help clinicians design rehabilitation strategies based
on the physiologic differences in skeletal muscle and mechanisms for
force production between children with CP and children of typical
development. Increasing muscle force-generating ability of children
with CP can improve a child’s function during activities such as
sitting, standing and walking.