title: The off-transient pulmonary oxygen uptake (VO(2)) kinetics following attainment of a particular VO(2) during heavy-intensity exercise in humans.
abstract: The oxygen uptake response to moderate-intensity exercise (i.e. < anaerobic threshold (an)) has been characterised with a gain (i.e. response amplitude per increment of work rate) and time constant that do not vary appreciably at different work rates or between the on- and off-transients. Above an, the response becomes more complex with an early component that typically projects to a value that has a gain similar to that of the < an response, but which is supplemented by the addition of a delayed slow kinetic component. We therefore established a constant target VO2 (VO21) for each subject such that with different imposed work rates the contribution to VO21 from the slow phase varied over a wide range. Work rates were chosen so that VO21 was attained at 2-24 min. Five subjects (aged 21-58 years) cycled at four to five different work rates. VO2 was measured breath-by-breath, at VO21 the work rate was abruptly reduced and the subject recovered by cycling unloaded for 15 min. Unlike the on-transient, for which the slow component shows a long delay, the off-transient was best fitted as two simultaneous exponential components. The slower off-transient component had a small amplitude and long time constant, but did not differ significantly among the various tests. The off-transient kinetics for VO2 therefore was independent of the magnitude of the contribution to the slow phase from the on-transient kinetics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, St George's Hospital Medical School, London SW17 0RE, UK. cunningh@julian.uwo.ca
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Cunningham
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Croix
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Paterson
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ozyener
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Whipp
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D008168:Lung / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008954:Models, Biological; D018763:Muscle Fatigue / Q000502:physiology; D010101:Oxygen Consumption / Q000502:physiology*