Automatic detection of maximal oxygen uptake and ventilatory threshold.

Maximal oxygen uptake (VO(2max)) and ventilatory threshold (VT) are the most common measurements in exercise physiology laboratories for the objective characterization of the physiologic state of metabolic and respiratory systems. Several techniques for their identification were proposed in the literature: the aim of the present study was to review them and assess their performance when applied to experimental data. In the present study, the criteria to detect VO(2max) and VT from respiratory gas-exchange data were analysed and automatic procedures for the identification of these parameters were implemented. These procedures were then applied to experimental data in order to assess the verifiability, repeatability and sensitivity to measurement noise of each proposed method. The results suggest plateau- and RISE-105- as the most reliable automatic procedures for determining VO(2max), while respiratory exchange ratio-, ventilatory equivalent for O(2)- and P(ET,O2)-criteria appear to be the most reliable automatic procedures for estimating VT.