Pulmonary Gaseous Exchange after Exercise of Short Duration in Silicosis: Reproducibility of Observations with Erikson's Method

Abstract

The reproducibility and reliability of Erikson's method for determination of the changes of the pulmonary gaseous exchange during and after exercise of short duration has been studied in 83 subjects with silicosis. The observations show that it is possible to obtain very satisfactory and reproducible observations for the gaseous exchange both before, during, and after exercise, and thus, that the method fills a major qualification for obtaining accurate determinations of the recovery times of the gaseous exchange; further, that it is possible to obtain representative observations for the response to exercise already in the first test. The CO₂ recovery time is longer, shows a higher degree of reproducibility and larger inter-individual differences than the ventilation and O₂ recovery times (especially the last), and thus seems to be the most discriminating and exact measure for evaluation of the cardio-pulmonary function of the three.

Key Words:

• CO₂ recovery time
• excess CO₂ output
• excess O₂ intake
• excess ventilation
• exercise
• O₂ cost of exercice
• O₂ recovery time
• pulmonary gaseous exchange
• resting metabolism
• silicosis
• ventilation recovery time