Objective: To study the relationship between respiration exchange ratio (RER) and tissue oxygen content in human skeletal muscle.
Method: Using a portable tissue oximeter based on near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), the relative changes of skeletal muscle oxygen content were measured non-invasively and in vivo when healthy volunteers were performing an incremental intensity running protocol. The results were compared with heart rate (HR), VO2, VCO2, and RER.
Result: In the experiment, the change in skeletal muscle oxygenation content of the volunteers was regular and has a significant close relationship to HR, VO2 and RER (P=0.01).
Conclusion: It shows that NIRS is a new photonic technology which provides a measurable biomedical parameter for the evaluation of athlete's physique and training effect. It offers reference for monitoring and assessing training effect in vivo, real-time and non-invasively.