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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 557/2/529    most recent jphysiol.2003.056887v1 Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Olfert, I. M. Articles by Hopkins, S. R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Olfert, I. M. Articles by Hopkins, S. R.

¹ Department of Medicine, Division of Physiology, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA² Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Innsbruck Medical School, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria

Women may experience greater pulmonary gas exchange impairment during exercise than men. To test this we used the multiple inert gas elimination technique to study eight women and seven men matched for age, height and _{O2 max} (48 ml kg^–1 min^–1) during normoxic and hypoxic (inspired P_O2= 95 Torr) cycle exercise. Resting lung function was similar between the sexes, except for a lower carbon monoxide diffusing capacity (DL_CO) in women (P < 0.05). Arterial P_O2,P_CO2 and alveolar–arterial O₂ difference (A–aD_O2) were not significantly different in men and women. Despite a lower diffusing capacity for O₂ (DL_O2) in women, the ratio DL_O2/ß (which estimates pulmonary end-capillary diffusion equilibrium) was similar between men and women and estimates of diffusion limitation during hypoxic exercise were not different between the sexes. Ventilation–perfusion inequality (described by the second moment of the perfusion distribution, logSD) increased during both normoxic and hypoxic exercise. Surprisingly, logSD values were slightly lower for women under all conditions (P < 0.05), but this did not significantly affect gas exchange. These data indicate that these active women, despite a lower DL_CO and DL_O2, do not experience greater exercise-induced abnormalities in gas exchange than men matched for age, height, aerobic capacity and lung size. Possibly fitness level and lung size are more important in determining whether or not pulmonary gas exchange impairment occurs during exercise than sex per se.

(Received 14 October 2003; accepted after revision 22 February 2004; first published online 27 February 2004)
Corresponding author I. M. Olfert: Department of Medicine 0623A, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0623, USA. Email: molfert{at}ucsd.edu