Mid Expiratory Flow Rates of Cold Weather Athletes With Exercise-Induced Asthma

The prevalence of exercise-induced asthma (EIA) is alarmingly high among both outdoor (O) and ice arena (I) cold weather athletes. This suggests that high exercise ventilation rates of either cold, dry air and/or rink air pollutants favor EIA expression. Despite the fact that airways of the O athlete are subjected to significantly colder ambient temperature than I (−20°C vs. 0–10°C), the prevalence of EIA is not different between the groups. A serendipitous observation that post-exercise mid expiratory flow rates were more impaired in I than in O led us to retrospectively compare pulmonary function test (PFT) results of EIA O and I athletes. PFTs were obtained pre- and 5, 10, and 15 min post- sport-specific exercise. Criterion for subject selection was a greater than 10% post-exercise fall in FEV1. Fifty-four EIA positive I athletes were matched with 54 randomly selected O EIA positive athletes for comparisons of PFT parameters. Maximum post-exercise fall in FEF25–75% was greater for I (27.7 ± 21.0 vs. 19.3 ± 16.6, P < 0.05). The data from this study suggest greater small airway dysfunction in I than in O. It is quite possible that the bronchial hyperreactivity observed in the I athlete is caused by chronic exposure to internal combustion pollutants emitted from ice resurfacing machines. Supported by the United States Olympic Committee.