The ability to measure regional blood flow from exercising skeletal muscles
is of great interest. However, noninvasive techniques such as venous occlu
sion plethysmography and pulsed Doppler duplex ultrasonography only allow d
etermination of blood now at rest. The aim of our study was to investigate
the influence of position on continuous measured skeletal muscle blood now
response in the upright and supine positions during graded maximal exercise
by means of the local (133)Xenon washout technique with portable CdTe(Cl)
detectors. Fifteen healthy subjects (8 women and 7 men, mean age 46 +/- 11
years) performed graded maximal bicycle exercise in both supine and upright
positions in random order on 2 subsequent days. Blood flow in the musculus
tibialis anterior was measured using the local (133)Xenon washout techniqu
e. A total of 55-110 MBq of (133)Xenon dissolved in isotonic saline was inj
ected intramuscularly and the gamma emission was registered by light-weight
portable CdTe(CI) detectors. During supine exercise skeletal muscle blood
flow increased continuously with increasing work load. However, during upri
ght exercise blood flow increased only at the initial three work loads, the
n it decreased gradually. Immediately after exercise blood now returned to
preexercise values for both positions. The skeletal muscle blood now at max
imum work load for each subject was 74% (relative flow values) (P < 0.05) h
igher in the supine compared with the upright position. There was no signif
icant difference in absolute or relative blood flow values at similar time
points. Exercise time was longer in the supine (1345 +/- 548 s) compared wi
th the upright position (1148 +/- 453 s) (P < 0.005). The local (133)Xenon
washout technique with portable CdTe(Cl) detectors allows continuous determ
ination of skeletal muscle blood flow during graded bicycle exercise in sup
ine and upright positions. Furthermore, blood flow at maximum work load and
exercise time was increased in supine compared with upright exercise. (C)
2000 Academic Press.