title: Reliability of an incremental exercise test to evaluate acute blood lactate, heart rate and body temperature responses in Labrador retrievers.
abstract: Thirteen healthy Labrador retrievers underwent a 5-stage incremental treadmill exercise test to assess its reliability. Blood lactate (BL), heart rate (HR), and body temperature (BT) were measured at rest, after each stage of exercise, and after a 20-min recovery. Reproducibility was assessed by repeating the test after 7 days. Two-way MANOVAs revealed significant differences between consecutive stages, and between values at rest and after recovery. There was also a significant reduction in physiological strain between the first and second trial (learning effect). Test reliability expressed as typical error (BL = 0.22 mmol/l, HR = 9.81 bpm, BT = 0.22 degrees C), coefficient of variation (BL = 19.3%, HR = 7.9% and BT = 0.6%) and test-retest correlation (BL = 0.89, HR = 0.96, BT = 0.95) was good. Results support test reproducibility although the learning effect needs to be controlled when investigating the exercise-related problems commonly observed in this breed.
authors.affiliation: College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN, USA. luca@cardiospecialist.co.uk
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ferasin
authors.forename: Samuele
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marcora
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001831:Body Temperature / Q000502:physiology*; D004285:Dogs / Q000097:blood / Q000502:physiology*; D005080:Exercise Test / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D019344:Lactic Acid / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013312:Stress, Physiological
chemical_list: D019344:Lactic Acid