gms | German Medical Science

Objective: A new ultrasonic monitor (Vittamed) can be used for non-invasive and real-time monitoring of dynamics of cerebrovascular autoregulation (CA) on sportsmen during their training. The objective of sportsmen medical study was to obtain the real time data for better understanding of CA dynamics under physical load conditions by performing CA monitoring on healthy amateur and professional sportsmen at rest and after physical exercises.

Material/Methods: Innovative fully noninvasive real-time CA monitoring device (Figure 1 [Fig. 1]) is based on the transmission of short ultrasonic pulses through the human head and dynamic measurements of the time-of-flight of ultrasonic pulses. The convenient mechanical frame is mounted on sportsman head in order to fix ultrasonic transducers to proper position (Figure 2 [Fig. 2]). The time-of-flight depends on the acoustic properties of pulsating blood flow in small brain vessels and arterioles and reflects cerebral blood flow autoregulation. It is proved, that this non-invasive technology could be applied for continuous monitoring of CA by using permanent intracranial waves analysis methodology [1].

Results: CA was monitored on 20 healthy amateur sportsmen, 10 professional weightlifters and 10 professional bodybuilders in supine position at rest (10 min) and after physical exercises (15 min). During the exercises the sportsmen lifted 50 kg weight and the weight of 80 % of individual maximum in a dynamic (weight lifting 10 times) and a static (weight holding 30 sec.) manner. It was observed that the mean value of CA reactivity indexes were almost the same on amateur and professional sportsmen at rest. Immediately after the physical exercise the CA reactivity index shows temporal improvement of the CA status for almost all sportsmen. But in the range of 7–10 min after the physical exercises an unstable CA status was observed for the professional bodybuilders. Such variation can appear due to the bodybuilders’ muscle mass. They get tired more quickly to quietly hold hands on their pectoral than amateur sportsmen or weightlifters. A temporally applied static physical load increases the heart rate, improves blood supply to the brain and normalizes the CA status as well. Additionally, the estimation of the influence of the body position on CA was monitored on professional sportsmen. It was detected that for a sportsman in the supine position with lowered down legs, some instability of the CA status may be observed and this instability is related to the changes in the arterial blood pressure.

Conclusion: The Vittamed non-invasive monitor provides real-time CA monitoring data during the sportsmen’s training and can be used for optimization of the sportsmen training methodology. The provided information about the CA dynamics in sportsmen might be useful for better understanding of healthy human brain physiology and for exploring the limits of human physical capabilities.