Abstract
Subsequently, we identified using fatty acid analysis that desaturase and elongase activity was significantly different in SCI when compared with matched able-bodied controls (7), confirming a disruption of lipid metabolism. The t-tests were used primarily as an exploratory procedure to ascertain statistical differences between the controls and the SCI with complete and incomplete spinal injury, and a one-way ANOVA was performed to compare the TyG:G ratio, НОМА-IR and TyG:HDL ratio between the groups. There was no statistically significant difference for TyG:HDL between the SCI with incomplete injuries and controls (p=0.614) DISCUSSION The purpose of this study was to investigate whether routine biochemical indices could identify at risk SCI for diabetes and cardiovascular disease, namely the use of triglycerides, glucose and HDL. Skeletal muscle is a major body organ involved in both glucose and fatty acid metabolism (17) and a loss of this metabolic activity will ultimately give rise to disruption of the interaction of energy substrates i.e. the loss of the ability to metabolise glucose.