Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Haematological Indexes of Inflammation in Paralympic Athletes with Different Motor Impairments

Haematological indexes of both inflammation and platelet activation have been suggested as predictive markers of cardiovasculardisease (CVD), which has high prevalence in Paralympic athletes (PA). Different mechanisms could play a role in increasing CVDrisk in PA with spinal cord injury (PA-SCI), lower limb amputation (PA-LLA), or upper limb impairment (PA-ULI). Wecompared, in 4 groups of PA competing in power, intermittent (mixed metabolism), and endurance sports, Framingham RiskScore (FRS), metabolic syndrome criteria (MetS-C), inflammation (INFLA) Score, 5 haematological indexes of platelet activation(mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet distribution width (PDW), and the ratios between MPV and platelet (MPVPR), betweenMPV and lymphocyte (MPVLR), and between PDW and lymphocyte (PDWLR)) and the endogenous antioxidants uric acid(UA) and bilirubin (BR). A retrospective chart review of PA from preparticipation examinations’records (London 2012 andSochi 2014 Paralympics) was performed. We included 25 PA-SCI (13 with high and 12 with low lesion, PA-SCI-H and PA-SCI-L), 15 PA-LLA, and 10 PA-ULI. FRS and INFLA Score did not differ among groups, but PA-SCI-H had lower HDL,compared to PA-SCI-L and PA-ULI. PA-LLA had more MetS diagnostic criteria with significant higher glucose levels thanother groups. PA-SCI-H had significantly lower lymphocytes’count compared to PA-LLA and higher MPV, PDW, MPVPR,MPVLR, and PDWLR. SCI-H had lower BR, haemoglobin, haematocrit, proteins, and creatinine. No interaction was foundbetween the 3 kinds of sitting sports and the 2 groups of health conditions (PA-SCI and PA-LLA). In conclusion, PA-LLA hada higher cardiometabolic risk, whereas PA-SCI-H had a higher platelet-derived cardiovascular risk. Further larger studies areneeded to investigate the relationship between indexes of inflammation/oxidation and dietary habit, body composition, andphysicalfitness/performance in PA with motor impairments.1. IntroductionThe common activities of daily life, carried out by individualswith spinal cord injury (SCI) or lower limb amputation(LLA), forced by their impairment to be sedentary, determinea vicious circle that perpetuates and increases sarcopenia, fatmass and osteoporosis [1], oxidative stress [2], chronic sys-temic inflammation [3], reduction of cardiovascular efficiency[4], dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, and atherosclerotic car-diovascular disease (CVD) risk [5]. Only physical exerciseHindawiOxidative Medicine and Cellular LongevityVolume 2019, Article ID 6798140, 11 pageshttps://doi.org/10.1155/2019/6798140