We sought to determine the impact of wearing cloth or surgical masks on the cardiopulmonary responses to moderate-intensity exercise. Twelve subjects (n=5 females) completed three, 8-min cycling trials while breathing through a: non-rebreathing valve (laboratory control), cloth, or surgical mask. Heart rate (HR), oxyhemoglobin saturation (SpO2), breathing frequency (Fb), mouth pressure, partial pressure of end-tidal carbon dioxide (PetCO2) and oxygen (PetO2), dyspnea, were measured throughout exercise. A subset of n=6 subjects completed an additional exercise bout without a mask (ecological control). There were no differences in Fb, HR or SpO2 across conditions (all p>0.05). Compared to the laboratory control (0.9±0.7cmH2O[mean±SD]), mouth pressure swings were greater with the surgical mask (4.7±0.9; p<0.0001), but similar with the cloth mask (3.6±4.8cmH2O; p=0.66). Wearing a cloth mask decreased PetO2 (-3.5±3.7mmHg) and increased PetCO2 (+2.0±1.3mmHg) relative to the ecological control (both p<0.05). There were no differences in end-tidal gases between mask conditions and laboratory control (both p>0.05). Dyspnea was similar between the control conditions and the surgical mask (p>0.05) but was greater with the cloth mask compared to laboratory (+0.9±1.2) and ecological (+1.5±1.3) control conditions (both p<0.05). Wearing a mask during short-term moderate-intensity exercise may increase dyspnea but has minimal impact on the cardiopulmonary response. Novelty bullets: • Wearing surgical or cloth masks during exercise has no impact on breathing frequency, tidal volume, oxygenation, heart rate • However, there are some changes in inspired and expired gas fractions that are physiologically irrelevant. • In young healthy individuals, wearing surgical or cloth masks during submaximal exercise has few physiological consequences.
Hypercapnic chemosensitivity is the response to increased partial pressure of carbon dioxide and results from central and peripheral chemosensor stimulation. The hypercapnic chemosensitivity of the peripheral chemoreceptors is potentially impacted by acute exercise, aerobic fitness, and sex. We sought to determine the peripheral chemoresponse to transient hypercapnia at rest and during exercise in males and females of various fitness. We hypothesized that i) higher fitness participants would have a lower hypercapnic chemosensitivity compared to those with lower fitness and ii) males would have a higher chemoresponse than females. Forty healthy participants (20 females) participated in one test day involving transient hypercapnic chemosensitivity testing and a maximal exercise test. Chemosensitivity testing involved two breaths of 10% CO2 repeated five times (45 sec-1 min between repeats) at rest and the first two stages of a maximal exercise test. There was no significant difference between higher and lower aerobic fitness groups, (mean difference 0.23 ± 0.22 rest; -0.07 ± 0.04 stage 1; 0.11 ± 0.17 stage 2 L/mmHg*min) during each stage (p=0.472). However, we saw a significant increase in the hypercapnic response during stage 1 (0.98 ± 0.4 L/mmHg*min) compared to rest (0.79 ± 0.5 L/mmHg*min) (p=0.01). Finally, at 80 W, males had a higher chemoresponse compared to females, which persisted following body surface area correction (0.56 ± 0.2 vs 0.42 ± 0.2 L/mmHg*min*m2, for females and males respectively (p=0.038). Our findings suggest that sex, unlike aerobic fitness, influences peripheral hypercapnic chemosensitivity and that context (i.e. rest vs. exercise) is an important consideration.
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