Exercise induced bronchospasm in recreational athletes: Prevalence and effects on physical performance

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study wasto find the prevalence ofexercise induced bronchospasm (EIB) in recreational athletes and the impact of EIB on physical performance.Methods: 2 14 male recreational athletes attending a physical education high school were enrolled in this Study (age: 19.6 +/- 1.3 year, height: 177.1 +/- 5.6 cm, weight: 71.1 +/- 5.8 kg). The athletes were asked to exercise for 8 min on a treadmill at 80 % of their rnoxin'lUrn heart rate (220-age) measured by a telemetry heart rate monitor. Following the exercise challenge, a spirometerWaS used for the spirornetric tests. A subject was considered to have EIB, when the exelcise-indUced decrease in FEV1 was 15% which is in accordance with existing guidelines. After this test 17 athletes were diagnosed with EIB, who composed the EIB group. 17 subjects randornly selected frorn non-ElB athletes were included into the control group. We subjected all athleles to the maximal exercise test 2 clays following the submaximal test. Maximal carcliorespiratory data were continuously measured during the maximal test on the treadmill "breath by breath" with a metabolic analyzer.Result- We found that the point prevalence was 7.9% of EIB in recreational athletes. Maximal oxygen consumption, heart rate and maximal ventilation values were not significantly different between both groups (p > 0.05). All spirornetric values except pre-test FEV1 presented a statistically significant difference between FIB and control group (Table 5). FEV1, PEF and FVC Values showed a statistically significant decrease following the spirornetric test (p < 0.001). To the contrary, these Values represented a significant increase following the spirornetric test in the control group (FEV1: p <= 0.05, PEF: p < 0.01, arid FVC: p <= 0.001).Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the aerobic capacity of recreational EIB athletes Without any corncornitant clisease is not adversely affected. The association between EIB and physical performance has to be investigated extensively in longitudinal studies.