Why the study?
Do adaptations in quadriceps muscle properties contribute to higher fatigability in patients with multiple sclerosis compared to controls?
Do adaptations in quadriceps muscle properties contribute to higher fatigability in patients with multiple sclerosis compared to controls?
Patients with multiple sclerosis exhibit greater muscle fatigability and lower voluntary activation capacity compared to controls, suggesting a lower oxidative capacity that may benefit from muscle mass training.
Suggests peripheral quadriceps adaptations contribute to MS fatigability; hypothesis-generating for targeted muscle training.
Functional characteristics of electrically stimulated quadriceps muscles of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) were determined to investigate whether adaptations in muscle properties contribute to the higher fatigability of these patients. The estimated maximal isometric force generating capacity of MS patients was only 11.2% (P < 0.05) lower than control subjects. However, the patients were only able to voluntarily exert 75 +/- 22% (n = 12) of their maximal capacity, against 94 +/- 6% (n = 7) for the control subjects. There were no differences in muscle speed, suggesting that muscle fiber distribution was not different in the MS patients due to reduced muscle usage. During a series of repeated contractions, greater decrements occurred in isometric force and in maximal rate of force rise in the MS patients (by 31.3 +/- 10.3% and 50.1 +/- 10.0%, respectively; n = 13) than control subjects (23.8 +/- 6.6% and 39.0 +/- 8.1%, n = 15), suggesting a lower oxidative capacity. The results indicate that increasing the mass of their muscles by training may help to reduce the excessive muscle fatigue of MS patients.
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Haan et al. (2000) studied this question.
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