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EXERCISE AND RESPIRATORY PHYSIOLOGY
1Département des Neurosciences Fondamentales, Centre Médical Universitaire, Genève, Switzerland; 2Dipartimento di Fisiologia Umana e Generale, Università di Bologna, Bologna; 3Dipartimento di Scienze Neurologiche e della Visione, Facoltà di Scienze Motorie, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy; 4Département d'Anesthésiologie, Pharmacologie et Soins Intensifs, Hôpital Cantonal Universitaire, Genève, Switzerland; and 5Sezione di Fisiologia Umana, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche e Biotecnologie, Università di Brescia, Brescia, Italy
Submitted 1 November 2007 ; accepted in final form 19 May 2008
We tested the hypothesis that vagal withdrawal plays a role in the rapid (phase I) cardiopulmonary response to exercise. To this aim, in five men (24.6 ± 3.4 yr, 82.1 ± 13.7 kg, maximal aerobic power 330 ± 67 W), we determined beat-by-beat cardiac output (
), oxygen delivery (
aO2), and breath-by-breath lung oxygen uptake (
O2) at light exercise (50 and 100 W) in normoxia and acute hypoxia (fraction of inspired O2 = 0.11), because the latter reduces resting vagal activity. We computed
from stroke volume (Qst, by model flow) and heart rate (fH, electrocardiography), and
aO2 from
and arterial O2 concentration. Double exponentials were fitted to the data. In hypoxia compared with normoxia, steady-state fH and
were higher, and Qst and
O2 were unchanged.
aO2 was unchanged at rest and lower at exercise. During transients, amplitude of phase I (A1) for
O2 was unchanged. For fH,
and
aO2, A1 was lower. Phase I time constant (
1) for
aO2 and
O2 was unchanged. The same was the case for
at 100 W and for fH at 50 W. Qst kinetics were unaffected. In conclusion, the results do not fully support the hypothesis that vagal withdrawal determines phase I, because it was not completely suppressed. Although we can attribute the decrease in A1 of fH to a diminished degree of vagal withdrawal in hypoxia, this is not so for Qst. Thus the dual origin of the phase I of
and
aO2, neural (vagal) and mechanical (venous return increase by muscle pump action), would rather be confirmed.
cardiovascular response
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