Near infrared spectroscopy and exercise

Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) provides a non-invasive method for the continuous monitoring of changes in tissue oxygenation and blood volume during aerobic exercise. During incremental exercise in adult subjects there was a positive correlation between lactate threshold (measured by blood sampling) and changes in the rate of muscle deoxygenation (measured by NIRS). However, the 7% failure rate for the NIRS test mitigated against the general use of this method. NIRS did not provide a valid method for LT determination in an adolescent population. NIRS was then used to examine whether haemodynamic changes could be a contributing factor to the mechanism underlying the cross-transfer effect. During a one-legged incremental aerobic exercise test the muscle was more deoxygenated in the exercising leg than in the non-exercising leg, consistent with oxygen consumption outstripping blood flow to the exercising limb. However, muscle blood volume increased equally in both legs. This suggests that blood flow may be raised to similar levels in both the legs; although local factors may signal an increase in blood volume, this effect is expressed in both legs. Muscle blood flow and changes in muscle blood volume were then measured directly by NIRS during an incremental one-arm aerobic exercise test. There was no significant difference in either blood volume or blood flow in the two arms at the end of the test. In the non-exercising arm changes in blood flow and blood volume were measured throughout the protocol. At higher exercise intensities, blood volume continued to rise as muscle blood flow plateaued, indicating that blood volume changes become independent of changes in blood flow. Finally, the effect of different training regimes on changes in muscle blood volume was examined. Subjects were assigned to a training group; two-arm training, one-arm training or a control group. Training did not affect blood volume changes during two-arm exercise. However, during one-arm exercise blood volume changes were greater in the trained arms than in the untrained arms. Blood volume changes measured by an independent technique (strain gauge plethysmography) confirmed the general trends observed by NIRS throughout these studies. I have shown that NIRS can, in principle, be used to monitor aerobic fitness. However, more interestingly NIRS offers an innovative method for understanding the mechanisms behind local and global haemodynamic control during exercise. (author)