1. Do athletes have an increased capacity to condition inspired air?
- Author
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Louis-Philippe Boulet, Hélène Villeneuve, Julie Turmel, and Simon-Pierre Moreau
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,biology ,business.industry ,Athletes ,Airway hyperresponsiveness ,Hyperpnea ,biology.organism_classification ,medicine.disease ,Exhaled air ,Expired air ,Internal medicine ,Breathing ,Cardiology ,Medicine ,Bronchoconstriction ,medicine.symptom ,Airway ,business - Abstract
Background: Endurance athletes have a high prevalence of airway diseases, some possibly representing adaptive mechanisms to the need of conditioning large volumes of inspired air during high ventilation in specific environments. Aim: To assess the ability of athletes to condition inspired air by measuring the difference between inhaled and exhaled air temperature (ΔT) during and after Eucapnic Voluntary Hyperpnea test (EVH). Methods: Twenty-three endurance athletes (12 with airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and/or exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) (A+), 11 withoutAHR and/or EIB (A-)) and 23 non-athletes (12 with AHR and/or EIB (C+) and 11 without AHR and/or EIB (C-)) were recruited. All subjects attended the laboratory on three occasions, twice for baseline characterization and once to perform a modified EVH for ΔT assessment. Inspired and expired air temperatures were measured with a high-precision probe during EVH and at regular intervals until 30 minutes after the end of the test. Results: The global ΔT during the EVH was +5.80±1.48°C and +4.73±1.51°C during the 30 minutes following the EVH. No difference was found between groups either for the ΔT or the slope of ΔT, during and after the EVH. Conclusion: This study shows no evidence of improved capacity to condition inspired air in endurance athletes, which could have suggested an increased bronchial blood flow or another adaptive mechanism. The absence of an adaptive mechanism could therefore contribute to airway damage observed in athletes in allowing colder but mainly dryer air to penetrate deeper in the lung.
- Published
- 2016
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