Muscle Oxygenation of the Paretic and Nonparetic Legs During and After Exercise in Chronic Stroke: Implications for Mobility.

At the onset of treadmill exercise, the paretic leg was unable to effectively match oxygen demand and extraction as well as the nonparetic leg, suggesting the need for an immediate cardiovascular warmup prior to initiating moderate intensity exercise in this population. Since the exercise desaturation rate is thought to indicate increased anaerobic metabolism and lactate production, efforts to delay rapid desaturation could improve sustainability of activities of daily living and exercise.