Relationship of respiratory effort sensation to expiratory muscle fatigue during expiratory threshold loading.

We investigated whether fatigue of the expiratory muscle, that is, the abdominal muscle, may account for a change in the respiratory effort sensation in normal subjects during expiratory threshold loading. The respiratory effort sensation was scored using a modified Borg scale. Expiratory muscle fatigue was assessed both from changes in the maximal static expiratory pressure and in the centroid frequency (fc) of the abdominal muscle electromyogram (EMG). Expiratory threshold loading (magnitude of threshold; 40 to 60% of the maximal expiratory pressure at FRC, breathing frequency = 15/min, and duty cycle = 0.5) was continued until exhaustion or for 30 min. Loading was repeated following a 15-min recovery period after the end of the first expiratory loading. The maximal static expiratory pressure during loading (Pmmax) decreased initially and then remained decreased. Decreases were smaller with the 40% load (22 +/- 6%, SEM) than with the 60% load (37 +/- 3%) (p less than 0.05). The decrease during the second run of the 60% load was greater than during the first (p less than 0.01 by ANOVA). The maximal expiratory pressure at TLC before the second run of the 60% load was decreased by 9 +/- 3% compared with the control (p less than 0.02) but that with the 40% load was not. The fc with the 60% load decreased initially by 8 +/- 1% and then remained constant, although no change was observed with the 40% load.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)