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Published on: May 26, 2020
No relationship exists between urinary NT-proBNP and GPS technology in professional rugby union
Angus Lindsay1, John G Lewis2, Nicholas Gill3
1Free Radical Biochemistry Laboratory, School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, New Zealand; Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Minnesota, USA.
Objectives:
We investigated the level of cardiovascular stress associated with professional rugby union and whether these changes could be explained through external workload systems like GPS and video analysis.
Design:
Urine samples (14 in game one and 13 in game two) were collected from professional rugby players before, immediately post- and 36h post-play in two consecutive games.
Methods:
Urine was analysed for NT-proBNP by ELISA. Comparison with GPS (player-load and distance covered at specific speed bands) and video analysis (total impacts) were conducted.
Results:
There was a significant increase in urinary NT-proBNP during game one (31.6±5.4 to 53.5±10.8pg/mL) and game two (35.4±3.9 to 49.8±11.7pg/mL) that did not correlate with the number of impacts, total distance covered, distance covered at pre-determined speed bands or player-load. Concentrations returned to pre-game concentrations 36h post-game whilst a large inter-individual variation in NT-proBNP was observed among players (p<0.001).
Conclusions:
Professional rugby union causes a transient increase in cardiovascular stress that seems to be independent of the external workload characteristics of a player.
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