Safety measures for conducting exercise oxygen consumption, VO₂, tests in developing countries

Abstract

Measurements of rate of oxygen consumption (VO2) recorded during controlled exercise is used to assess cardiovascular health in test individuals. In low- or middle-income countries, where Mycobacterium tuberculosis is common and older VO2 systems are in use, three specific preventative measures should be in place to prevent the transmission of tuberculosis. These include: (1) disinfecting reusable plastic masks and rubber tubing with bleach solution; (2) limiting maximum exposure of test individuals to Cl2 gas to <1–3 ppm for a duration of ≤15 min to prevent respiratory distress; and (3) carefully inspecting for degradation of plastic VO2 masks and rubber tubing repeatedly disinfected with bleach and replace these at the first signs of deterioration.

Modeling and Analysis of Physical Human-Robot Interaction of an Upper Body Exoskeleton in Assistive Applications

“…In addition to the muscle activities, we are also interested to find the metabolic cost. The metabolic energy is a common evaluation measure for assistive devices and is often experimentally determined by a VO2 mask, which measures the volume of oxygen consumption by the test subject Rowe (2020). While modeling the individual muscle metabolic energy requires complex formulas Bhargava et al (2004), which includes information on heat dissipation of the muscle, we calculate in this work the human energy consumption from the mechanical work produced by the contractile element of the muscle model, i.e.…”