Lower thoracic spinal cord stimulation is an effective method of restoring an effective cough in participants with complete spinal cord injury. The high voltage requirements however significantly limits this application in subjects with intact lower chest wall sensation. In anesthetized animals, we have shown that the expiratory muscles can also be effectively activated with low stimulus currents (1 mA) but with high stimulus frequencies (HF-SCS -500 Hz). In 3 intact, awake pigs the responses to HF-SCS, were evaluated. HF-SCS was associated with marked expansion of the abdominal wall and external oblique EMG activity without any associated changes in heart rate or vocalization. During a terminal procedure under general anesthesia, responses to HF-SCS were re-assessed. Abdominal movement and EMG were similar to that observed in the awake state. HF-SCS (1.5 mA) resulted in an airway pressure of 65 ± 2cmH2O. Our results indicate that lower thoracic HF-SCS may be a useful method to restore an effective cough in patients with intact chest wall sensation.

中文翻译：

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在清醒动物中通过下胸高频脊髓刺激激活呼气肌。

下胸段脊髓刺激是恢复完全脊髓损伤参与者有效咳嗽的有效方法。然而，高电压要求显着限制了该应用在具有完整下胸壁感觉的受试者中。在麻醉动物中，我们已经表明，呼气肌肉也可以在低刺激电流 (1 mA) 和高刺激频率 (HF-SCS -500 Hz) 下有效激活。在 3 头完整、清醒的猪中评估了对 HF-SCS 的反应。HF-SCS 与腹壁显着扩张和外斜肌 EMG 活动相关，而心率或发声没有任何相关变化。在全身麻醉下的终末手术过程中，重新评估了对 HF-SCS 的反应。腹部运动和肌电图与在清醒状态下观察到的相似。HF-SCS (1.5 mA) 导致气道压力为 65 ± 2cmH2O。我们的结果表明，下胸段 HF-SCS 可能是一种有用的方法，可以让胸壁感觉完好的患者恢复有效咳嗽。