A team of researchers found that wearing a transfemoral prosthesis played a significant role in blood pressure regulation during activities of daily living. Because circulatory dynamics may be hampered in people with transfemoral amputations, the researchers investigated the effect of wearing a prosthesis on blood pressure regulation in response to postural change.
Seven people with unilateral transfemoral amputations underwent a head-up tilt test. The participants were tested while wearing a prosthesis and without. During testing, the researchers continuously measured systolic blood pressure, heart rate variability, and muscle blood flow using near-infrared spectroscopy.
In the no-prosthesis test, systolic blood pressure decreased from supine to standing positions in all participants. In contrast, while wearing a prosthesis, the participants’ systolic blood pressure increased during the postural change.
The findings suggested to the study’s authors that a transfemoral prosthesis increases peripheral vascular resistance in the lower limbs and stimulates the baroreflex, helping to stabilize the circulatory dynamics upon postural change.
The open-access study, “Blood Pressure Regulation in Persons with a Transfemoral Amputation: Effects of Wearing a Prosthesis,” was published in the Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics.
