Reliability and Validity of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Mitochondrial Capacity Measurement in Skeletal Muscle

Abstract

Establish reliability of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) mitochondrial capacity measurement and assess validity using heating and cooling interventions. We recruited 13 participants for four visits. Two visits consisted of a series of blood pressure occlusions proximal to the NIRS probe and electrical stimulation to the thigh, calf and forearm for reliability. Visits 3 and 4 required heating or cooling of the three muscles, using the protocol above. The between day reliability coefficient of variation (CV) in the forearm was 3% and time constant (TC) average was 41.9 ± 9.2 seconds (s). The within day CV in the forearm = 4.5%, the calf = 5.5% and the thigh = 4.6% (n = 13). Within day reliability for the cold condition in the forearm = 5.9%, calf = 4.3% and thigh = 4.4% and within day for the hot condition in the forearm = 6.4%, calf = 5.3% and thigh = 4.6%. The cold condition increased TC in the forearm, but decreased TC with heat (p < 0.05). The thigh decreased mitochondrial capacity with heat (p < 0.05), but cold was no different from control. These results suggest NIRS mitochondrial capacity has good within and between day reliability and temperature changes the mitochondrial capacity time constant.

Bilateral NIRS measurements of muscle mitochondrial capacity: Feasibility and repeatability

“…In women, within-visit CVs ranged from 5.0% to 35.0% (median = 13.0%), with slightly less variance in the VL compared to MH muscles. These CVs are somewhat higher than what has been reported in the calf/plantar flexion model across several labs (Adami & Rossiter, 2018;La Mantia et al, 2018;Southern et al, 2014; CV = 4.5%-11%) and markedly higher than the La Mantia et al ( 2018) study (CV = 4.6%) which also used electrical stimulation in the resting VL of young adults. It is unclear why within-visit (trial-to-trial) variability appears higher in the present study than in these previous reports (which were all in healthy young controls), particularly given the higher number of replicates we obtained (n = 4 vs. two or three replicates in previous reports) and our strict adherence to current NIRS testing guidelines (Adami & Rossiter, 2018;Barstow, 2019).…”

Development and Validation of a Smartphone-Based Near-Infrared Optical Imaging Device to Measure Physiological Changes In-Vivo

“…Venous occlusion studies are a standard validation technique widely employed to demonstrate the feasibility of physiological measuring imaging technology. It has been widely used by various researchers for various imaging studies in the past [29,30,31,32]. Herein, near-infrared imaging studies were performed using the smartphone-based device in response to venous occlusion studies.…”

Investigating the effect of sex, maturity, training status, and physical activity on performance and health-related parameters in children, adolescents, and adults

“…[HHb] signal has specific methodological limitations, including the generalisability of response dynamics from a singular localised area to the whole muscle (Barstow, 2019), and variations in adiposity between boys and girls possibly contributing to signal differences (Gurley et al, 2012;La Mantia et al, 2018). Moreover, whilst research has suggested that a seven-day measurement period is indicative of children and adolescents habitual physical activity levels, others have suggested they may not reflect habitual physical levels appropriately (Trost et al 2015) and therefore these results should be interpreted with caution.…”

“…Recent advances in technology have allowed paediatric researchers to non-invasively examine muscle deoxygenation kinetics using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), typically examined at the m. vastus lateralis (Barstow, 2019;Breese, Saynor, Barker, Armstrong, & Williams, 2019;Marwood et al, 2010;Willcocks, Williams, Barker, Fulford, & Armstrong, 2010). The infrared light utilised is typically within the 700 -900 nanometre (nm) wavelength (Barstow, 2019), which allows the detection of lightabsorbing chromospheres, namely haemoglobin (HHb) and myoglobin (Mb; Barstow, 2019;Boone, Koppo, Barstow, & Bouckaert, 2009;La Mantia, Neidert, & Kluess, 2018;Ryan, Southern, Reynolds, & McCully, 2013). NIRS therefore has the potential to offer insights into physiological differences in local muscle microvasculature associated with sex, training and/or maturity status (Barstow, 2019;Boone et al, 2009).…”