This article presents the design of a treadmill of comprehensive training experiment for rats. The treadmill is composed of six tracks and two of them were designed as conventional plane, two were designed to swing right and left, and two were designed to swing back and forth. The power was provided by six motors. The MSP430F149 is used as core to adjust the swing rate and the grade of electric shock. The IAR for MSP430 is used to design the software. The speed of the six tracks could be adjusted between 0 and 30 m/min. The swing tracks of back and forth can be swung for 3-25 times per minute and the swing tracks of right and left for 3-32 times. The electric shock can be divided into three levels, i. e. strong, middle, and weak level for each track. The digital comprehensive training treadmill can meet different training needs, and provide experimental data for mechanism research of some related diseases.
Animals ; Equipment Design ; Exercise Test ; instrumentation ; Physical Conditioning, Animal ; instrumentation ; Rats

INTRODUCTIONMany consider the Wingate Anaerobic Test (WAnT) as a reference standard assessment mode in the measurement of lower limb short-term power output. However the WAnT is criticised for having low ecological validity, in non-cycling tasks and is reliant on a predetermined applied force, which might not elicit the highest power output. A viable alternative to the WAnT is the Non-Motorised Treadmill (NMT) Test, which allows for power measurement in all-out intensity effort sprint-running. With the reliability of the NMT to elicit power in sedentary adults already established, the aim was to compare peak power (PP) and mean power (MP) derived from a 10-s sprint on the NMT to that derived from a 10-s WAnT, to establish concurrent validity.

MATERIALS AND METHODSTwelve male [age 26.6 +/- 2.4 years, body mass (BM) 63.0 +/- 7.2 kg] and 11 female (age 25.3 +/- 3.6 years, BM 51.0 +/- 4.0 kg) sedentary adults participated in the study. PP and MP in absolute, ratio-scaled and allometrically-scaled to BM were analysed. Ratio limits of agreement (LOA) was used to establish the agreement between PP and MP from the NMT and the WAnT.

RESULTSPP in absolute and ratio-scaled to BM from the NMT was between 1.04 and 1.12 times that of PP from the WAnT in 95% of the attempts (PP: NMT, 647.1 +/- 176.4W vs WAnT, 597.0 +/- 146.0W). MP in absolute and ratio-scaled to BM from the NMT test was between 0.88 and 0.97 times of that from the WAnT (MP: NMT, 508.9 +/- 130.7W vs WAnT, 548.7 +/- 131.3W). Power produced on the NMT and the WAnT by sedentary adults shared moderate and acceptable levels of agreement.

CONCLUSIONSThese results affirmed that the NMT could be considered as a viable alternative to the WAnT for the assessment of PP and MP in allout intensity sprint-running lasting 10 s in sedentary adults.

Adult ; Exercise ; physiology ; Exercise Test ; instrumentation ; standards ; Female ; Humans ; Life Style ; Male ; Motor Activity ; physiology ; Muscle Strength ; physiology ; Physical Fitness ; physiology

OBJECTIVETo determine the validity of the pulmonary function equipment.

METHODS12 young students (including six males and six females) were enrolled as our research subjects. And the values of oxygen consumption (VO(2)), carbon dioxide production (VCO(2)) and energy expenditures (EE) of the subjects under three typical activity intensities: resting, moderate intensity (on a treadmill with grade 10% and speed 2.7 km/h) and hard intensity (on a treadmill with grade 10% and speed 5.8 km/h) were measured using the pulmonary function equipment (K4b(2)) and Douglas-bag respectively. And the Douglas-bag method was used as reference and the results were compared with the other method.

RESULTSThe measured VO(2) values by using the Douglas-bag and the pulmonary function equipment under three typical activity intensities were: at rest (0.22 ± 0.03), (0.22 ± 0.05) L/min (t = 0.120, P > 0.05); moderate intensity condition (0.95 ± 0.12), (0.96 ± 0.14) L/min (t = 0.240, P > 0.05); hard intensity condition (1.63 ± 0.28), (1.54 ± 0.35) L/min (t = 1.487, P > 0.05). For VCO(2) values: at rest (0.18 ± 0.02), (0.18 ± 0.04) L/min (t = 0.425, P > 0.05); moderate intensity (0.82 ± 0.11), (0.83 ± 0.13) L/min (t = 0.579, P > 0.05); hard intensity (1.64 ± 0.27), (1.52 ± 0.39) L/min (t = 2.330, P < 0.05). And for EE values, at rest (269.40 ± 35.70), (267.02 ± 55.39) kJ/h (t = 0.200, P > 0.05); moderate intensity (1165.76 ± 148.06), (1185.91 ± 161.89) kJ/h (t = 0.326, P > 0.05); hard intensity (2062.91 ± 341.97), (1912.27 ± 483.88) kJ/h (t = 1.718, P > 0.05) respectively. The results showed that there were no significant differences between the two methods except the VCO(2) values under high intensity condition was underestimated by the pulmonary function equipment. Bland-Altman test showed that the difference of the two methods was evenly distributed by the mean and standard error of the system was 24.7 kJ/h. Our data showed the results from the Douglas-bag and the pulmonary function equipment were consistent.

CONCLUSIONPulmonary function equipment had good validity in assessing the energy expenditure in Chinese adults.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Energy Metabolism ; physiology ; Exercise Test ; instrumentation ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Oxygen Consumption ; physiology ; Respiratory Function Tests ; instrumentation ; Students ; Young Adult

This paper introduces the designing concept of the ECG treadmill system and discusses the methods of its realization.
Amplifiers, Electronic ; Computer Simulation ; Computer Systems ; Coronary Disease ; diagnosis ; Electrocardiography ; instrumentation ; methods ; Equipment Design ; Exercise Test ; instrumentation ; methods ; Humans ; Microcomputers ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Software

BACKGROUND/AIMS: We examined the ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) level during exercise in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS: Forty patients with a history of chest pain underwent both symptom-limited treadmill exercise stress testing and coronary angiography within one week. During the treadmill tests, blood samples were obtained at baseline and 5 min after exercise to measure the serum IMA level. RESULTS: Of the 40 patients, fourteen (35%, CAD group) had significant coronary artery stenosis, while the other 26 (65%, non-CAD group) did not. The baseline and post-exercise IMA levels in the two groups did not differ significantly (105.2+/-7.2 vs. 107.7+/-6.7 U/mL at baseline and 93.1+/-10.1 vs. 94.8+/-5.7 U/mL at post-exercise in the CAD and non-CAD groups, p=0.29 and 0.57, respectively). The changes in IMA after exercise did not differ either (-10.4+/-7.5 vs. -14.0+/-7.6 U/mL in the CAD and non-CAD groups, respectively, p=0.10). Similarly, the change in IMA between the exercise ECG test positive (TMT positive, n=9) and negative (TMT negative, n=20) groups did not differ (-14.63+/-5.19, vs -8.50+/-9.01 U/mL, p=0.15, in the TMT positive and negative groups, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that IMA has limitation in detecting myocardial ischemia during symptom-limited exercise stress tests.
Aged ; Albumins/*diagnostic use/metabolism ; *Chest Pain ; Electrocardiography ; *Exercise Test/instrumentation ; Female ; Humans ; Lactic Acid/blood ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Myocardial Ischemia/blood/*diagnosis/physiopathology ; Pilot Projects