There is a new kid in town: body composition metrics to optimize reference equations for peak oxygen consumption during treadmill tests
Year: 2025
Type: editorial
Abstract: This editorial refers to ‘Reference equations for peak oxygen uptake for treadmill cardiopulmonary exercise tests based on the NHANES lean body mass equations, a FRIEND registry study’, by E.J. Santana et al., https://doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwaf045. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is a valuable tool with versatile areas of application such as assessment of exercise capacity, evaluation of unexplained dyspnoea, perioperative risk for non-cardiac surgeries, disease severity or prognosis, selection of patients for heart transplantation, monitoring of interventions or prescription of exercise training.1–3 Due to its strong relation to cardiovascular and all-cause mortality, the most important and widely used CPET parameter is peak oxygen consumption (V̇O2). However, the problem with the ‘raw value’ of peak V̇O2, even if adjusted to body weight, is that it depends on several factors such as sex, age, but also body composition. In fact, even when normalized to body weight, average peak V̇O2 is ∼10–20% lower in women compared to men, primarily related to a smaller heart and lungs, lower haemoglobin concentration and mass, as well as lower percent body fat and less muscle mass.4 Similarly, from the age of 25–30 years, peak V̇O2 starts to decrease with ∼3–6% per decade, accelerating to >20% per decade beyond the age of 70 years.5 Accordingly, the interpretation of a peak V̇O2 value is fundamentally different depending on whether it belongs to a 40-year-old normal-weight man or a 70-year-old obese woman.
Authors: Stephan Mueller, Frédéric Schnell
Language: English
Subfield: Complementary and alternative medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4407196770