Schweizerische Zeitschrift fur Sportmedizin最新文献

It is well-known that many athletes experience some form of precompetition stress that may result in insomnia during the night before their competition. Yet, sleep withdrawal even if only partial, has a negative influence on performance, particularly when the type of exercise requires good psychomotor performance The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether the intake of a hypnotic drug would have negative effects on physical performance capacity. The authors have compared the effects of oral temazepam, a medium half-life benzodiazepine vs oral zolpidem, a short half-life non-benzodiazepine drug, vs placebo. A randomized double-blind trial was used to assess endurance, resistance, strength and coordination in 26 athletes. The results did not show any differences between the three groups, neither in physical performance characteristic nor in coordination. It is concluded that as regards the performance capacity, there is no risk for stressed athletes to use sleep inducers the night before their competition.

As is generally known in occupational medicine, exposure to repetitive wrist movements, to vibration and heavy manual work may cause a carpal tunnel-syndrome (CTS). The examination of three kinds of sport (swimming, moto-cross-riding, body-building), each typical for one of the described reasons of high risk for an exercise-induced CTS, showed on 18 sports-women and 54 sportsmen that prolonged practice of one of these kinds of sport may indeed lead to CTS among young people. Six of the examined persons on the typical symptoms of CTS. The electrophysiological main feature of CTS, namely the distal motor latency of the median nerve, was had nine other sportsmen significantly longer than the age-specific normal value (according to Ludin). A clear positive correlation between the estimated total duration of training and the distal motor latency of the median nerve was found.

Our study deals with cases of sudden death (non-traumatic death) while playing sport which were examined at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Geneva, and covers the last ten years: 1980-1989. We discovered 19 cases, all men between the ages of 17 to 67. In the case of the younger sportsmen (under the age of 45-50) or when the causes of mortality were unclear, the police requested an autopsy, which totalled 8 cases. In the other 11 cases, we were asked to make an external examination of the bodies, in order to exclude any signs of violence. Seven sportsmen, aged 36-49, who used to play high-risk sports such as football, tennis, basketball and running were autopsied and presented a myocardial infarct. Its interesting that 2 of these cases had also an old scar of a myocardial infarct. The eighth case was a 17 year old boy who had an already known obstructive cardiomyopathy.

This review examines the lung and chest wall adaptation to exercise in health in persons of widely varying degrees of fitness. First we examine the regulation of breathing and gas exchange in the sedentary young adult who shows a near perfect regulation of alveolar gases, ventilation to perfusion distribution, diffusion equilibrium in the lung during all levels of exercise. This individual's respiratory muscles are also ideally recruited both tonically and phasically so as to meet multi-faceted postural, locomotory and respiratory demands. The topic of plasticity in the pulmonary system is discussed with specific reference to the effects of physical training and athleticism. The key point made here is that both homeostasis of gas transport and mechanical efficiency, with which the pulmonary system meets the demands of muscular exercise will depend upon the ability to maintain a significant margin between demand vs. structural capacity. Pulmonary diffusion capacity and at least some aspects of respiratory muscle function seem to be "overbuilt" in the young untrained adult. This margin of safety no longer prevails as the athlete becomes fitter. The cause is to be found in the relative lack of adaptability of the lung and chest wall to the training stimulus. Examples of demand coming very close or exceeding the capacity of the pulmonary system include the highly trained young endurance athlete and the aged athlete. Examples of "failure" or near failure in the pulmonary system's response to exercise include: a) exercise induced arterial hypoxemia via diffusion limitation; b) diaphragmatic fatigue in endurance exercise; c) expiratory flow limitation at VO2max.; d) achieving the capacity of inspiratory muscles for pressure generation at VO2max. and e) oxygen cost of breathing which is in excess of 15% of VO2max. in those athletes who experience the most mechanical limitation.

The measurement of lactate is a major aid for controlling the capacity of an athlete and for establishing individual training schedules. The results are affected by different factors like the site of blood sampling or the distribution of lactate in the blood. The aim of the study was to investigate under constant conditions the results of four different commercially available methods for measuring lactate in blood. All methods were first tested with pure standards of lactate and with different reference sera. Both the accuracy and the reproducibility of the results were good. One method (Lange) showed good accuracy at room temperature but the values were too low at higher temperatures. The enzymatic method was then chosen as reference method for investigations with blood samples. The first method (ESAT) showed excellent correspondence, the results of the second (Lange) were 5-10% too low, and the third method (YSI) showed results too low and were also susceptible to trouble.

Frequency and severity of football related injuries have been registered on 90 swiss championship players. A multifactorial evaluation was then done, taking into account age, duration of football practice and number of training hours. Analysis was made of type and place of the injury, its origin as well as the length of the recovery period. The highest injury rate occurs in August (start of the championship). In the national leagues, a team will be hit by 20 injuries on average every half season, 20% of which require a break in the sports activity. The incidence of injuries depends on the performance level. Its values varies between 2.1 and 10.7 per 1000 hours of football play, the highest frequency being seen in the lower leagues. 40% of the mishaps happen during training sessions and 70% of all injuries require a recovery period of more than one week. The best protection rests on a mix of thorough warming up, regular stretching sessions for the legs and a well applied taping, even for preventive purposes.

The purpose of this study was to examine the changes of the fat compartment and its relations to the corresponding blood chemistry and nutritional parameters of 55 participants of an ultra long distance run of 1000 km which consisted of 20 daily runs of 50 km. During the whole event the weight showed a falling tendency, significantly paralleling the cholesterol levels. In the middle of the run the values did not change any longer. The fat mass and all skinfolds and circumferences showed a continuously falling tendency. Only the thigh-skinfold initially grew and came down from the 4th day on. The serum blood concentrations of cholesterol and triglycerides of both sexes were decreased until the 6th and 8th day. Then a distinct increase was observed, but the initial values were not restored. The average daily energy intake of the men (women) was 4260 (3033) kcal/d, the average nutrient intake being 602.7 (431.5) g carbohydrates/d, 146.5 (103.3) g fat/d, 53.1 (38.4) g saturated fatty acids/d, 43.1 (31.3) g monounsaturated fatty acids/d, 25.3 (17.2) g polyunsaturated fatty acids/d and 382.8 (279.1) mg cholesterol/d. The correlations between the cumulative fat and food-supplies on one hand and the decrease of the anthropometric measurements of fatness on the other are negative, hence body fat mass followed closely total energy and fat intake.

All competitions of the Engadin Ski marathon were analyzed in order to pursue the development of the participants' performances over time. Of special interest was the influence of the recently introduced free skating technique on the finish times. Statistical computations are based on quantiles (x0.1, x0.25, x0.5, x0.75, x0.9). Since the first competition in 1969, there is a continuous increase of performance. The introduction of the fast freestyle-technique didn't lead to a visible improvement of the performances. Probably, other variables like growing importance of leisure-time sport-leading to greater performance capability of the participants- and considerable progress in the development of the equipment contributed to the performance progress over time.

The use of adhesive tape has proved to be a good alternative to treat several types of trauma and overuse syndromes at the upper ankle joint and the foot. According to the different injuries and problems the varied uses are presented. Especially the importance of the functional anatomy is emphasized for initiating a successful taping procedure. The techniques presented are offered merely as recognized methods which have been found effective and which should stimulate to improve this type of treatment.