Impaired skeletal muscle oxidative phosphorylation in patients with severe mitochondrial respiratory chain defects results in disabling exercise intolerance that is associated with a markedly blunted capacity of muscle to increase oxygen utilization in relation to circulatory and ventilatory responses that increase oxygen delivery to muscle during exercise. The range of oxidative limitation and...

Purpose: Allometry is a method to express the relationship between physiological and anatomical variables. It can be used to measure the vital capacity through mathematical equations. This study aimed at evaluating lung function indices to estimate the maximal aerobic power by respiratory gas analysis device and the allometric equation. Methods: This study was a descriptive and correlational r...

Background: A study was undertaken to investigate the aerobic capacity and pulmonary function of children 6 and 15 months after the diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Methods: Thirty four patients of mean age 14.7 years completed both pulmonary function and maximal aerobic capacity tests at 6 months. All had normal clinical examination and were asymptomatic. Their exercise r...

BACKGROUND A study was undertaken to investigate the aerobic capacity and pulmonary function of children 6 and 15 months after the diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). METHODS Thirty four patients of mean age 14.7 years completed both pulmonary function and maximal aerobic capacity tests at 6 months. All had normal clinical examination and were asymptomatic. Their exercise r...

Aims. Several mechanisms can be involved in the development of exercise intolerance in patients with heart failure despite normal left ventricular ejection fraction (HFNEF) and may include impairment of left ventricular (LV) stiffness. We therefore investigated the influence of LV stiffness, determined by pressure-volume loop analysis obtained by conductance catheterization, on exercise capacit...

OBJECTIVES We sought to evaluate the course of cardiopulmonary function after transcatheter atrial septal defect (ASD) closure and to identify the physiopathologic mechanisms leading to this change. BACKGROUND Conflicting reports exist on cardiopulmonary functional improvement in asymptomatic adults after transcatheter closure of a secundum ASD. METHODS Thirty-two consecutive adults (13 mal...

UNLABELLED Aerobic capacity, measured as the peak oxygen uptake, is a strong predictor of survival in cardiac patients. Aerobic interval training (AIT), walking/running four times four minutes at 85-95% of peak heart rate, has proven to be effective in increasing peak oxygen uptake in coronary heart disease patients. As some patients do not attend organized rehabilitation programs, home-based e...

BACKGROUND Low back pain with onset during pregnancy is common and approximately one out of three women have disabling pain. The pathogenesis of the pain condition is uncertain and there is no information on the role of physical fitness. Whether poorer physical conditioning is a cause or effect of back pain is also disputed and information from prospective studies needed. METHODS A cohort of ...

AIMS Exercise intolerance and increased efferent vasoconstrictor traffic to muscle are two characteristics of heart failure that have not been explicitly linked. We tested the hypothesis that peak oxygen consumption is inversely related to resting muscle sympathetic nerve activity in heart failure. METHODS AND RESULTS We recorded peroneal muscle sympathetic nerve activity in 17 treated heart ...

Left ventricular isovolumic stress development and metabolic parameters were studied in 18-24-month-old spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) and age-matched Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rat controls using the isolated, isovolumic (balloon in left ventricle) buffer-perfused rat heart preparation. After WKY rats and all SHRs were compared, SHRs were divided into two groups: those animals with (SHR-F) and...