Acute hypervolemia lengthens red cell pulmonary transit time during exercise in endurance athletes.

The purpose was to determine if acute plasma volume expansion (PVE) changed red-cell pulmonary transit time (PTT) during severe exercise. Twelve endurance athletes performed 6.5 min of severe cycling exercise on different days. Pentaspan [(500 ml, infusion condition, I] or placebo [(60 ml saline), non-infusion condition, N] were infused prior to exercise. Blood gas tensions, PTT, multigated acquisition (MUGA) derived cardiac output, and oxygen uptake were measured during exercise. PTT was measured during minute 3 of exercise by radionuclide cardiography. Arterial P(O(2)) (Pa(O(2))), and alveolar-arterial oxygen pressure difference (AaD(O(2))) at minute 3 of exercise did not differ between conditions. Mean PTT at minute 3 of exercise was 0.3 sec longer in the I condition (P=0.002). However, the change in PTT between conditions was not correlated to the change in either Pa(O(2)) or AaD(O(2)). We conclude that PVE slows (lengthens) PTT without affecting pulmonary gas exchange. Therefore, rapid PTT may not be related to hypoxemia during exercise.