%0 Journal Article
%T Assessment of cardiopulmonary capacity in deconditioned athletes because of knee injury.
%A Segreti A
%A Fossati C
%A Mulè MT
%A Fanale V
%A Crispino SP
%A Coletti F
%A Parisi FR
%A Zampogna B
%A Vasta S
%A Mannacio E
%A Papalia R
%A Antonelli-Incalzi R
%A Pigozzi F
%A Grigioni F
%J J Sports Med Phys Fitness
%V 64
%N 7
%D 2024 Jul
%M 38916084
%F 1.669
%R 10.23736/S0022-4707.24.15496-5
%X <B>BACKGROUND: </B>An athlete's career inevitably goes through periods of forced physical exercise interruption like a knee injury. Advanced echocardiographic methods and cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) are essential in evaluating athletes in the period elapsing after the injury. However, the feasibility of a maximal pre-surgery CPET and the capacity of resting advanced echocardiographic techniques to predict cardiorespiratory capacity still need to be clarified.<BR><B>METHODS: </B>We evaluated 28 non-professional athletes aged 18-52, involved in prevalently aerobic or alternate aerobic/anaerobic sports activities, affected by a knee pathology with indications for surgical treatment. The evaluation was performed at rest by trans-thoracic echocardiography, including global longitudinal strain (GLS) and myocardial work (MW) assessment, and during exercise by CPET.<BR><B>RESULTS: </B>The percent-predicted peak oxygen consumption (peak VO<inf>2</inf>%) was 82.8±13.7%, the mean respiratory exchange ratio was 1.16±0.08, and the mean ventilation/carbon dioxide (V<inf>E</inf>/VCO<inf>2</inf>) slope was 24.23±3.36. Peak VO<inf>2</inf>% negatively correlated with GLS (r=-0.518, P=0.003) and global wasted work (GWW) (r =-0.441, P=0.015) and positively correlated with global work efficiency (GWE) (r=0.455, P=0.012). Finally, we found that the V<inf>E</inf>/VCO<inf>2</inf> slope during exercise was negatively correlated with GWE (r=-0.585, P=0.001) and positively correlated with GWW (r=0.499, P=0.005).<BR><B>CONCLUSIONS: </B>A maximal CPET can be obtained in deconditioned athletes because of a knee injury, allowing a comprehensive functional pre-surgery evaluation. In these patients, peak VO<inf>2</inf> is reduced due to decreased physical activity after injury; however, a lower cardiopulmonary efficiency may be a concause of the injury itself. In addition, we demonstrated that the MW indexes obtained at rest could predict exercise capacity and ventilatory efficiency as evaluated by CPET.