title: [Incremental stress test: comparison between protocols and cardiorespiratory reference values in healthy workers].
abstract: The aim of this study was double: to compare two different incremental stress protocols and to obtain reference values for a standardised exercise test in healthy workers. Firstly, eighty healthy male workers, 40 coal miners and 40 hospital workers, aged 19-54, performed in 2 different days 2 cycle ergometer tests up to exhaustion, increasing the work load respectively by 30 watts every 3 minutes (protocol A) and by 30 watts each minute (protocol B). Ventilatory and gas exchange measurements were done by a breath-by-breath apparatus equipped with a turbine and fast gas analysers for O2 and CO2. For each test the ventilatory anaerobic threshold (VAT) was blindly determined as oxygen uptake (V'O2 VAT) using standardised gas exchange and ventilatory indices (V'CO2, V'E, V'E/V'O2) that were found giving comparable results with those derived from the blood lactacte curve. Significant differences were observed between the two protocols only concerning the average work load at exhaustion and at the VAT: the highest being with the protocol B. Conversely, either the maximal oxygen uptake (V'O2 max) and the V'O2 VAT were comparable between protocols, as well as the other cardio-respiratory parameters were at these exercise levels. Oxygen uptake and heart rate increased in average linearly with the work load with very similar slopes in both protocols. Comparable results between protocols were found also as what concerns the slopes of the other physiological variables (V'E, V'CO2) analysed against the V'O2, particularly for exercise levels lower or equal to the individual VAT. Thus, these results suggest a very good comparability between the two protocols, concerning both the levels of maximal and sub-maximal aerobic capacity (V'O2 max, V'O2 VAT) and the cardio-respiratory pattern related to the oxygen uptake. Reference values for the 30 watts/3 minutes cycle ergometer stress test were achieved in other 320 healthy Sardinian workers concerning both the maximal (V'O2 max) and sub-maximal (V'O2 VAT) aerobic capacity and the range of normality for the cardio-respiratory pattern during the test, particularly for completely aerobic work loads, namely work loads not above the V'O2 VAT. These prediction equations can be useful for the evaluation of working capacity of workers employed in manual jobs characterised by moderate-to-high dynamic energy expenditure.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Sanità Pubblica, Sezione di Medicina del Lavoro, Università degli Studi di Cagliari. cartapl@pacs.unica.it
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carta
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Aru
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002985:Clinical Protocols; D005080:Exercise Test / Q000379:methods*; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D012119:Respiration