Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the autonomic modulation of heart rate in sedentary paraplegics and paraplegic wheelchair basketball players with thoracic spinal cord injury below T6. Seven paraplegic wheelchair basketball players (active paraplegic group), five paraplegics who were not involved in regular exercise (sedentary paraplegic group) and 10 able-bodied participants (control group) took part in the study. The heart rate variability was evaluated by linear (low frequency and high frequency band in normalised units and low frequency/high frequency ratio) and nonlinear methods (Shannon entropy, corrected conditional entropy, and symbolic analysis). The sedentary group presented significantly higher values for low frequency, low frequency/high frequency ratio and symbolic index with no significant variations (0V%), and also lower values for the high frequency and symbolic index with two significant unlike variation (2ULV%) compared to active paraplegic group. Shannon entropy and corrected conditional entropy analyses revealed significantly lower values in the sedentary group than in the control or active paraplegic groups. Paraplegic individuals who regularly undertake physical exercise have higher complexity of R-R interval time series, lower sympathetic modulation, and higher parasympathetic modulation than sedentary paraplegic participants.