Hybrid Functional Electrical Stimulation Exercise to Prevent Cardiopulmonary Declines in High-level Spinal Cord Injury
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT04458324. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Over the past ten years, the Cardiovascular Research Laboratory at Spaulding has refined a unique form of exercise for those with spinal cord injuries (SCI). Functional Electrical Stimulation Row Training (FESRT) couples volitional arm and electrically controlled leg exercise, resulting in the benefits of large muscle mass exercise. However, despite the potential for enhancing aerobic capacity by training the denervated leg skeletal muscle via hybrid FES exercise, the inability to increase ventilation beyond limits set by high level SCI restricts aerobic capacity. This research study will investigate two potential methods of improving ventilation in those with high-level SCI through a double-blind randomized trial. One method is non-invasive ventilation (NIV), which is an external breathing support machine. The second method is the use of Buspar, a drug, which has been used to treat respiratory dysfunction after SCI in rats and some human case reports. In this study, participants will engage in a 6-month FES row training program while receiving either NIV or shamNIV and Buspar or placebo, and under study tests to evaluate cardiopulmonary health and fitness.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT04458324
- Recruitment status
- Active, not recruiting
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase 2
- Enrollment
- 70 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Interventions
- Buspirone Hydrochloride Drug
- Buspirone placebo Drug
- Noninvasive Ventilation (NIV) Device
- Sham Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) Device
- Functional Electrical Stimulation Row Training (FESRT) Other
Drug · Device · Other
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years to 55 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Dec 21, 2020
- Primary completion
- Jul 30, 2026
- Completion
- Jul 30, 2027
- Last update posted
- Mar 4, 2026
2020 – 2027
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spaulding Hospital Cambridge | Cambridge | Massachusetts | 02138 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT04458324, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Mar 4, 2026 · Synced Sep 3, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT04458324 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.