Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test Parameters in Athletic Population: A Review

Overview

Journal J Clin Med

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2021 Nov 13

PMID 34768593

Citations 20

Authors

Reza Mazaheri

Christian Schmied

David Niederseer

Marco Guazzi

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Although still underutilized, cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) allows the most accurate and reproducible measurement of cardiorespiratory fitness and performance in athletes. It provides functional physiologic indices which are key variables in the assessment of athletes in different disciplines. CPET is valuable in clinical and physiological investigation of individuals with loss of performance or minor symptoms that might indicate subclinical cardiovascular, pulmonary or musculoskeletal disorders. Highly trained athletes have improved CPET values, so having just normal values may hide a medical disorder. In the present review, applications of CPET in athletes with special attention on physiological parameters such as VOmax, ventilatory thresholds, oxygen pulse, and ventilatory equivalent for oxygen and exercise economy in the assessment of athletic performance are discussed. The role of CPET in the evaluation of possible latent diseases and overtraining syndrome, as well as CPET-based exercise prescription, are outlined.

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