Research Methodology: Endocrinologic Measurements in Exercise Science and Sports Medicine

Abstract

Objective: To provide background information on methodologic factors that influence and add variance to endocrine outcome measurements. Our intent is to aid and improve the quality of exercise science and sports medicine research endeavors of investigators inexperienced in endocrinology.Background: Numerous methodologic factors influence human endocrine (hormonal) measurements and, consequently, can dramatically compromise the accuracy and validity of exercise and sports medicine research. These factors can be categorized into those that are biologic and those that are procedural-analytic in nature.Recommendations: Researchers should design their studies to monitor, control, and adjust for the biologic and procedural-analytic factors discussed within this paper. By doing so, they will find less variance in their hormonal outcomes and thereby will increase the validity of their physiologic data. These actions can assist the researcher in the interpretation and understanding of endocrine data and, in turn, make their research more scientifically sound.

Evaluation of plasma hormone concentrations using Enzyme-Immunoassay/Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent assay in healthy Indian men: Effect of ethnicity

“…In addition, as the level of physical training and diet were uniform for all the subjects, effects of these factors could not have contributed to the apparent hormonal variations among the ethnic groups studied. In comparison with RIA, values obtained by EIA/ELISA for PRL, TSH and fT 4 were higher while values for TT 3 , fT 3 and TT 4 were lower. These differences are due to differences in assay standards and design.…”

“…The values obtained by ELISA shows that TSH and fT 4 levels are higher than RIA while TT 3 , fT 3 and TT 4 values are lower than RIA (Table 5). …”

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“…Once puberty is reached, females demonstrate the characteristic pulsatile release of gonatrotrophin and sex steroid hormones throughout menarch and males demonstrate increased androgen steroid hormone production [149]. Differences that manifest at puberty tend to persist through adulthood until women become postmenopausal [63]. Moreover, gender specific syndromes may further increase biological variation.…”

Efeitos agudos do treinamento concorrente sobre os níveis séricos de leptina e cortisol em adultos jovens sobrepesados

“…to the human body 21 and powerful stimulators of fast secretion 22 . During acute exercise, in a test of maximum oxygen consumption ( O 2max ), the level of blood cortisol increases according to the exercise intensity, once the work load is above the critical threshold (50-60% O 2max ) 21,22 .…”

“…During acute exercise, in a test of maximum oxygen consumption ( O 2max ), the level of blood cortisol increases according to the exercise intensity, once the work load is above the critical threshold (50-60% O 2max ) 21,22 . Therefore, in the same absolute intensity of exercise, cortisol may present low response from the practice of an exercise training program.In the submaximal exercise, the cortisol response is more variable and influenced by many external factors 19 .…”