Question

By placing a mask over someone's mouth and nose and recording their ventilatory volume and fractional concentration of oxygen in expired air, you can measure their rate of oxygen consumption (VO₂) via:

A. Fick's Law of Diffusion

B. the Fick Principle

C. the Krogh Principle

Answer 1

B. the Fick Principle

• Maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) is the standard measurement for of cardiovascular, pulmonary, and muscular aerobic fitness.
• VO2max is the maximum oxygen consumption per minute
• VO2max represents ability of an individual’s upper limit of aerobic metabolism.
• The Fick Equation states that VO2max equals the amount of blood pumped per heart beat at maximum heart rate times the amount of oxygen the working muscles are able to extract from the blood passing through them.

Fick Equation is given as:

VO2 max = Q(CaO2-CvO2)
Q is cardiac output,
CaO2 = arterial oxygen content,
CvO2 = venous oxygen content.