Abstract:

Individuals with spinal cord injury may have changes in the cardiovascular system, such as decreased heart rate variability, due to partial and or total loss of autonomic innervation. In this population, physical exercise has been considered an intervention that can minimize these cardiovascular dysfunctions. Thus, the present study was to present, through a literature review, the behavior of heart rate variability (HRV) in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) in response to acute and chronic physical exercise. The search was carried out in the PubMed, Web of Science, BVS and Scielo databases. Terms used were spinal cord injury, heart rate variability, physical exercise, lesão medular, variabilidade da frequência cardíaca and exercício físico. 12 articles were selected that met the inclusion criteria, 7 studies that evaluated the effect of chronic physical exercise and 5 the acute effect. Individuals with SCI preserve HRV at rest, however, have some deficits in the ability to perform cardiovascular adjustments when subjected to the overload imposed by acute physical exercise. And most studies did not find differences in HRV when performing the analysis after chronic physical exercise, regardless of the type, duration, and intensity of physical exercise.

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