Abstract
Purpose
Several papers (algorithm papers) describe computational algorithms that assess alveolar breath-by-breath gas exchange by accounting for changes in lung gas stores. It is unclear, however, if the effects of the latter are actually considered in literature. We evaluated dissemination of algorithm papers and the relevant provided information.
Methods
The list of documents investigating exercise transients (in 1998–2017) was extracted from Scopus database. Documents citing the algorithm papers in the same period were analyzed in full text to check consistency of the relevant information provided.
Results
Less than 8% (121/1522) of documents dealing with exercise transients cited at least one algorithm paper; the paper of Beaver et al. (J Appl Physiol 51:1662–1675, 1981) was cited most often, with others being cited tenfold less. Among the documents citing the algorithm paper of Beaver et al. (J Appl Physiol 51:1662–1675, 1981) (N = 251), only 176 cited it for the application of their algorithm/s; in turn, 61% (107/176) of them stated the alveolar breath-by-breath gas exchange measurement, but only 1% (1/107) of the latter also reported the assessment of volunteers’ functional residual capacity, a crucial parameter for the application of the algorithm. Information related to gas exchange was provided consistently in the methods and in the results in 1 of the 107 documents.
Conclusion
Dissemination of algorithm papers in literature investigating exercise transients is by far narrower than expected. The information provided about the actual application of gas exchange algorithms is often inadequate and/or ambiguous. Some guidelines are provided that can help to improve the quality of future publications in the field.
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Abbreviations
- BbB:
-
Breath-by-breath
- EID:
-
Unique academic work identifier assigned in Scopus bibliographic database, i.e., the record identifier
- ELV:
-
End-expiratory lung volume that matched breath-by-breath changes in end-expiratory measurements so as to minimize the breath-by-breath variation, according to the approach proposed by Swanson and Sherrill (1983)
- FRC:
-
Functional residual capacity
- VO2 :
-
Oxygen uptake
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Experimentation was carried out at the Human Exercise Physiology laboratory of the Department of Medicine, University of Udine (Italy). GP, CV and FMP equally contributed in conception and design of the work; GP and MPF analyzed the data; GP, CV and MPF interpreted the data and drafted the paper. All the authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript. GP, CV and FMP agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work. All persons designated as authors qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify for authorship are listed.
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Petra Golja, Valentina Cettolo and Maria Pia Francescato declare no conflict of interests.
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Communicated by Michael Lindinger.
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421_2018_3914_MOESM1_ESM.xls
List of documents investigating exercise transients as yielded by the overall Scopus search for the period from including 1998 to 2017. Citations of the papers describing alveolar breath-by-breath gas exchange algorithms are marked. Data in the green cells are reported in the manuscript (XLS 262 KB)
421_2018_3914_MOESM2_ESM.xls
The documents that cite a specific paper describing an alveolar breath-by-breath gas exchange algorithm are listed on a single sheet. The different columns report the information obtained from the documents and used for the analysis (see Methods for details). Data in the green cells are reported in the manuscript (XLS 286 KB)
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Golja, P., Cettolo, V. & Francescato, M.P. Calculation algorithms for breath-by-breath alveolar gas exchange: the unknowns!. Eur J Appl Physiol 118, 1869–1876 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-018-3914-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-018-3914-z