Abstract
Seventeen healthy male volunteers participated in this study designed to compare arterial
with both arterialized venous and venous lactate kinetics after short exercise. Blood
samples drawn before, during, and after bicycle exercise were analyzed continuously
for lactate. A mathematical function incorporating two exponential terms was fitted
to the arterial, arterialized venous, and venous lactate recovery curves, and the
parameters of the mathematical function were compared using a linear regression. All
parameters measured on or fitted to the arterialized venous curves correlated well
with the respective arterial data (correlation coefficient R = 0.82 to 0.99, P < 0.001).
Among the parameters obtained from the fit to the venous curves, only those describing
lactate removal correlated closely with the arterial results. It is concluded that
for lactate kinetic studies during recovery following short-term muscular exercise,
the information obtained from arterialized venous blood is comparable to arterial
blood, whereas the use of venous blood, from the sampling site in this study, appears
suitable for determining only the parameters for lactate disappearance. These conclusions
are illustrated by the comparison between arterial, arterialized venous, and venous
parameters as a function of the work rate of the previously performed exercise.
Key words
arterial lactate - venous lactate - lactate removal - recovery
