Monitoring the physiological parameters of SCI patients during rehabilitation

A number of studies in the literature have reported on the responses of the physiological systems of SCI patients and this includes recent sleep studies [1-2]. This paper examines the possibility of monitoring a range of physiological parameters in SCI patients during extended periods of activity undertaken in a rehabilitation setting. The aim of these initial studies is to look at the feasibility of developing a monitoring system that would enable researchers to study the behaviour of physiological parameters during rehabilitation, and in response to prescribed activity. The approach was to use a portable system that had been developed for home based sleep studies, and to evaluate the potential of this system to provide a wheelchair based monitoring platform. Initial studies reported here suggest that a totally portable system can provide a clinically useful monitoring system for SCI rehabilitation studies, and that such a system would allow the rehabilitation to the be optimised to match the individual patients needs. Future equipment developments are discussed.