title: An MR-compatible bicycle ergometer for in-magnet whole-body human exercise testing.
abstract: An MR-compatible ergometer was developed for in-magnet whole-body human exercise testing. Designed on the basis of conventional mechanically braked bicycle ergometers and constructed from nonferrous materials, the ergometer was implemented on a 1.5-T whole-body MR scanner. A spectrometer interface was constructed using standard scanner hardware, complemented with custom-built parts and software to enable gated data acquisition during exercise. High-quality 31P NMR spectra were reproducibly obtained from the medial head of the quadriceps muscle of the right leg of eight healthy subjects during two-legged high-frequency pedaling (80 revolutions per minute) at three incremental workloads, including maximal. Muscle phosphocreatine content dropped 82%, from 32.2+/-1.0 mM at rest to 5.7+/-1.1 mM at maximal workload (mean+/-standard error; n=8), indicating that the majority of quadriceps motor units were recruited. The cardiovascular load of the exercise was likewise significant, as evidenced by heart rates of 150 (+/-10%) beats per minute, measured immediately afterward. As such, the newly developed MR bicycling exercise equipment offers a powerful new tool for clinical musculoskeletal and cardiovascular MR investigation. The basic design of the ergometer is highly generic and adaptable for application on a wide selection of whole-body MR scanners.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical NMR, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands. j.a.l.jeneson@tue.nl
authors.forename: Jeroen A L
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Jeneson
authors.forename: Joep P J
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Schmitz
authors.forename: Peter A J
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Hilbers
authors.forename: Klaas
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nicolay
mesh_terms: D016477:Artifacts; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005080:Exercise Test / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008280:Magnetics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D051598:Whole Body Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*