Background: Maximum oxygen uptake is an established measurement of diagnosing chronic heart failure and underlies various central and peripheral factors. However, central and peripheral factors are little investigated, because they are usually measured invasively. The aim of this study was to compare non-invasively measured central and peripheral factors of oxygen uptake between patients with chronic heart failure and healthy controls. Methods: Ten male patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (62 ± 4 years; body mass index: 27.7 ± 1.8 kg/m 2 ; ejection fraction: 30 ± 4%) and ten male healthy controls (59 ± 3 years; body mass index: 27.7 ± 1.3 kg/m 2) were tested for blood pressure, heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, and cardiac power output (central factors) as well as muscle oxygen saturation of the vastus lateralis and biceps brachii muscle (peripheral factors) during an incremental cycling test. Stroke volume and muscle oxygen saturation were non-invasively measured by a bioreactance analysis and near-infrared spectroscopy, respectively. Additionally, a maximum isometric strength test of the knee extensors was conducted. Magnitude-based inferences were computed for statistical analyses. Results: Patients had a likely to most likely lower oxygen uptake, mean arterial pressure, and heart rate at maximum load as well as very likely lower isometric peak torque. Contrary, patients had a possibly to likely higher stroke volume and muscle oxygen saturation of the vastus lateralis muscle at maximum load. Differences in cardiac output, cardiac power output, and muscle oxygen saturation of the biceps brachii muscle at maximum load were unclear. Conclusions: Non-invasively measured central and peripheral factors of oxygen uptake differ between patients with chronic heart failure and healthy controls. Therefore, it is promising to measure both types of factors in patients with chronic heart failure to optimize the diagnosis and therapy.

Purpose The aim of this systematic review was to update the knowledge on risk factors and prevention strategies for shoulder injuries in overhead sports with special emphasis on methodological quality. Methods All methodological procedures were performed in line with a previous systematic review by Asker et al. (2018). The literature search was conducted in the PubMed, Google Scholar, Cochrane, and SPORT-Discuss databases. Due to the risk of bias assessment, only studies with at least an acceptable methodological quality were included. A best-evidence synthesis was performed to clarify the evidence and direction of the risk factors and prevention strategies. Results A total of nine studies were included in the data extraction process. One study had a high and eight studies had an acceptable methodological quality. Seven cohort studies investigated risk factors and two randomised controlled trails evaluated prevention strategies. Moderate evidence was found for two non-modifiable (playing position, gender) and three modifiable factors (shoulder rotational strength, scapular dyskinesia, shoulder prevention programme) that were associated with the shoulder injury risk. All further risk factors had moderate and no association with risk (shoulder rotational ROM, joint position sense) or limited (history of shoulder/elbow pain, age, training experience, training volume, school grade, playing level), and conflicting evidence (setting). Conclusions There is moderate evidence for two non-modifiable (playing position, gender) and three modifiable factors (shoulder rotational strength, scapular dyskinesia, shoulder prevention programme) being associated with the shoulder injury risk in overhead sports.

Background: In all age groups of handball players, anthropometric characteristics and physical capacities are important prerequisites to fulfilling the playing demands. However, there is no study that has compared anthropometric characteristics and physical capacities between junior and adult handball players by the same research design containing field tests.

Background In intermittent team and racquet sports, metabolic loads are rarely investigated as they are difficult to examine, e.g., by portable metabolic carts and lactate measures. However, determining the instantaneous metabolic power of intermittent running from acceleration and speed data is possible. Recently, this potential has gained more interest in research and practice due to the development of player tracking technologies that allow easy access to the required data. The aim of this review was to systematically investigate the validity and point out the evidence of this new approach for estimating metabolic loads in intermittent sports. To provide an in-depth understanding of this approach and its validity, the fundamental aspects of the underlying concept were also considered. Methods PubMed®, Cochrane Library, Web of Science™, and BISp-surf databases were included in the search conducted on March 1, 2021. Studies assessing physiological and methodological validation as well as conceptual studies of the metabolic power approach in intermittent sports players without diseases or injuries were deemed eligible. The quality assessment was implemented using a modified 12-item version of the Downs and Black checklist. Additionally, a best-evidence synthesis of the validation studies was performed to clarify the direction and strength of the evidence. Results Of 947 studies that were identified, 31 met the eligibility criteria of which 7 were physiological, 13 methodological validation, and 11 conceptual studies. Gold standards for validating the metabolic power approach were predominantly oxygen uptake with 6 and traditional running speed analysis with 8 studies for physiological and methodological validation, respectively. The best-evidence synthesis showed conflicting to strong and moderate to strong evidence for physiological and methodological validity of the approach, respectively. The conceptual studies revealed several modifications regarding the approach that need to be considered. Otherwise, incorrect implementation can occur. Conclusions Evidence of the physiological validity of the metabolic power approach ranged from conflicting to strong. However, this should be treated with caution as the validation studies were often partially implemented incorrectly as shown by the underlying concept studies. Moreover, strong evidence indicated that the approach is valid from a methodological perspective. Future studies must consider what the metabolic power approach can and cannot actually display.