Atherosclerotic cardiovascular risk in paralympic athletes with locomotor impairments

Locomotor impaired (LI) individuals, particularly those with spinal cord injury (SCI), are considered to be more prone to atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (CVD) than able-bodied individuals, because of an altered lipid profile mainly due to their sedentary habit. The present study was carried out on a population of LI athletes (A) who competed in the last Paralympic Summer Games (Beijing 2008) and Mediterranean Games (Pescara 2009). In this population we demonstrated that high aerobic fitness (oxygen consumption peak - VO2peak) provides a protective effect on CVD risk factors (RF) (inverse relationship between VO2peak and RF sum). The present study was aimed at evaluating the hypothesis that athletes with SCI have a greater CVD risk than LI athletes with other impairments, even when the two groups have the same VO2peak. From a group of 83 LI-A (45 with SCI and 38 with either amputation or poliomyelitis – AMP/PM) declared eligible for competitive sport participation, we formed two groups of LI-A (20 with SCI and 13 with AMP/PM) matched for age and VO2peak. CVD risk was assessed in each LI-A, summing up the following RF: smoking, familiarity, obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia and pre-diabetes. In LI-A with SCI (age: 35±7.9; VO2peak 30.5±9.87 ml∙kg-1∙min-1), RF sum was equal to 1.5±1.05. In LI-A with AMP/PM (age: 33±8.2; VO2peak 32.7±7.42 ml∙kg-1∙min-1), RF sum (0.9±0.65) was significantly lower than in LI-A with SCI. The prevalence of LI-A with 2 or more RF was equal to 40% in LI-A with SCI and to 15.4% in those with AMP/PM. The present study shows that LI-A with SCI have greater CVD risk than their counterparts with other kinds of locomotor impairments. In conclusion, LI-A with SCI need to abolish sedentary behaviours and must improve their aerobic fitness to improve their high CVD risk.