HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Free Full Text (PDF) Free All Versions of this Article: 100/4/1204    most recent 01127.2005v1 Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Sheel, A. W. Articles by McKenzie, D. C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Sheel, A. W. Articles by McKenzie, D. C.

Human ventilatory responsiveness to hypoxia is unrelated to maximal aerobic capacity

¹School of Human Kinetics, and ²Faculty of Medicine, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Submitted 12 September 2005 ; accepted in final form 4 January 2006

Ventilatory responsiveness to hypoxia (HVR) has been reported to be different between highly trained endurance athletes and healthy sedentary controls. However, a linkage between aerobic capacity and HVR has not been a universal finding. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between HVR and maximal oxygen consumption (O_{2 max}) in healthy men with a wide range of aerobic capacities. Subjects performed a HVR test followed by an incremental cycle test to exhaustion. Participants were classified according to their maximal aerobic capacity. Those with a O_{2 max} of 60 ml·kg^–1·min^–1 were considered highly trained (n = 13); those with a O_{2 max} of 50–60 ml·kg^–1·min^–1 were considered moderately-trained (n = 18); and those with a O_{2 max} of <50 ml·kg^–1·min^–1 were considered untrained (n = 24). No statistical differences were detected between the three groups for HVR (P > 0.05), and the HVR values were variable within each group (range: untrained = 0.28–1.61, moderately trained = 0.23–2.39, and highly trained = 0.08–1.73 l·min·%arterial O₂ saturation^–1). The relationship between HVR and O_{2 max} was not statistically significant (r = –0.1723; P > 0.05). HVR was also unrelated to maximal minute ventilation and ventilatory equivalents for O₂ and CO₂. We found that a spectrum of hypoxic ventilatory control is present in well-trained endurance athletes and moderately and untrained men. We interpret these observations to mean that other factors are more important in determining hypoxic ventilatory control than physical conditioning per se.

control of breathing; exercise; hypoxic ventilatory response