title: Muscle deoxygenation during sustained and intermittent isometric exercise in hypoxia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  It is reported that the rate of locomotor muscle fatigue development during intermittent isometric exercise in hypoxia is accelerated compared with normoxia. In contrast, when sustained isometric contractions are used, some studies do not show any effect of hypoxia on fatigue development. Increased intramuscular pressure during sustained isometric exercise causes substantial and sustained ischemia, even in normoxia. Therefore, we hypothesized that the difference in muscle deoxygenation between normoxia and hypoxia would be small during sustained exercise compared with intermittent exercise and that this may contribute to the inconsistent findings.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects performed sustained and intermittent isometric, unilateral, and submaximal knee-extension exercises (60% maximal voluntary contraction to exhaustion) while breathing normoxic (inspired O2 fraction = 0.21) or hypoxic gas mixtures (inspired O2 fraction = 0.10-0.12). Muscle oxygenation (deoxyhemoglobin/myoglobin and tissue oxygenation index) using near-infrared spectroscopy and surface EMG were measured from the left vastus lateralis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During intermittent isometric exercise in hypoxia, increases in deoxyhemoglobin/myoglobin and reductions of tissue oxygenation index were larger (P < 0.05) than those in normoxia. The rate of rise in integrated EMG during intermittent exercise was accelerated (P < 0.05) in hypoxia. In contrast, there were no significant differences in changes in near-infrared spectroscopy variables and integrated EMG during sustained isometric exercise between normoxia and hypoxia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that muscle deoxygenation is exaggerated during intermittent isometric exercise in hypoxia compared with normoxia, whereas during sustained isometric exercise, the extent of muscle deoxygenation is the same between normoxia and hypoxia. The different extent of muscle deoxygenation during sustained and intermittent isometric exercise in normoxia and hypoxia could affect muscle fatigability, which results from the varied rate of accumulation of metabolites.
authors.affiliation: Research Center of Health, Physical Fitness and Sports, Nagoya University, Japan. katayama@htc.nagoya-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Keisho
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Katayama
authors.forename: Yasuhide
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yoshitake
authors.forename: Kohei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Akima
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ishida
mesh_terms: D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D018763:Muscle Fatigue / Q000502:physiology*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult