Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 13, 2026
Paradigms of Lower Extremity Electrical Stimulation Training After Spinal Cord Injury
Published on: February 1, 2018
Effects of Testosterone-Augmented Multimodal Exercise Intervention in Spinal Cord Injury: A Randomized Controlled
Kieran F Reid1,2, Thomas W Storer1, Karol M Pencina1
1Research Program in Men's Health: Aging and Metabolism, Boston Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center for Function Promoting Therapies, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Context:
Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to profound muscle atrophy, aerobic deconditioning, and metabolic dysfunction. Exercise-based interventions alone produce modest benefits. Whether testosterone can augment physiologic responses to exercise in this population remains untested.
Objective:
To evaluate efficacy and safety of home-based intervention combining functional electrical stimulation-assisted leg cycling (FES-LC), arm ergometry (AE) and testosterone compared with FES-LC, AE plus placebo in adults with SCI.
Methods:
This randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial enrolled 84 adults (76 males and 8 females) aged 19-70 years with SCI (neurologic levels C4-T12; AIS grades A-D). Participants were randomized to multimodality intervention (home-based FES-LC, AE and intramuscular testosterone undecanoate) (n=38) or control intervention (FES-LC, AE plus placebo) (n=46) for 16 weeks. The primary outcome was change in aerobic capacity (peak VO2) during AE cardiopulmonary exercise testing. Secondary outcomes included lean mass, hemoglobin, cardiometabolic markers and safety.
Results:
Mean (SD) age was 44 (13) yrs and time since injury was 13.9 (13) years). Between-group changes in peak VO2 were not statistically significant. Within-group improvements were larger in multimodality (∼19% increase; 0.10 L/min; 95% CI, 0.02-0.18 L/min) compared to controls (∼6% increase; 0.06 L/min; 95% CI, -0.01-0.13). The multimodality group gained significantly more lean mass (whole-body:1.84 kg, 95% CI: 0.52-3.16, P =.007; lower extremity 0.92 kg, 95% CI: 0.38-1.45, P =.001), and anemia was corrected in a greater proportion of participants. Adverse event rates were similar between groups.
Conclusions:
A home-based multimodality intervention combining FES-LC, AE, and testosterone was safe and associated with greater improvements in lean mass and hemoglobin. Although between-group differences in aerobic capacity were not statistically significant, greater within-group increases were observed in the multimodality group. These findings may inform future studies of testosterone-augmented exercise interventions for individuals living with SCI.
