Development of thermoregulation system for athlete of spinal cord injury

Abstract

Patients with spinal cord injury have deteriorated thermoregulatory function because of the autonomic nervous system is damaged. Thus, body temperature control in summer for wheelchair athletes is an important issue from the viewpoints of improving training efficiency and preventing of accidents caused by heat stroke.To solve these problems, we have developed the thermoregulatory system that can be used by patients with spinal cord injured using a wheelchair. The developed system consisted of cooling jacket with cold water tubing. , Exercise loading experiment was performed to wear and not wear a cooling jacket by two healthy subjects. To measure the cooling effect of the system, the deep body temperature (DBT) as an index of body temperature was measured every 10 seconds and . DBT with the cooling jacket was declined after the exercise, while DBT without the cooling jacket was increased.