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Supramaximal Intensity Hypoxic Exercise and Vascular Function Assessment in Mice
Published on: March 15, 2019
Intermittent hypoxia increases exercise tolerance in patients at risk for or with mild COPD
M Burtscher1, T Haider, W Domej
1Department of Sport Science, Medical Section, University of Innsbruck, Fürstenweg 185, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria. martin.burtscher@uibk.ac.at
Abstract:
The effects of repeated short-term hypoxia on exercise tolerance in patients at risk for, or with mild COPD were investigated. Eighteen patients (10 males, 8 females; 33-72 years) were randomly assigned in a double-blind fashion to receive 15 sessions of intermittent hypoxia (FiO(2): 0.15-0.12) or normoxia within 3 weeks. Three weeks of intermittent hypoxia increased total haemoglobin mass (+4% vs. 0%, p<0.05), total exercise time (+9.7% vs. 0%, p<0.05) and the exercise time to the anaerobic threshold (+13% vs. -7.8%, p<0.05) compared to controls. Changes in the total exercise time were positively related to the changes in total haemoglobin mass (r=0.59, p<0.05) and changes in the time to the anaerobic threshold were positively related to the changes in the lung diffusion capacity for carbon monoxide (r=0.48, p<0.05). Intermittent hypoxia treatment may be a valuable addition to therapy designed to improve exercise tolerance in patients at risk for, or with mild COPD.
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