Some Effects of Physical Fatigue on Peripheral Circulation in Athletes

Abstract

This investigation was prompted by suggestions resulting from observations on the high incidence of recurrent attacks of malaria and predisposition to upper respiratory infections following fatigue. The possible suggestion arose that there might be an effect upon the peripheral circulation to which a clue could be obtained by a study of the blood picture. An earlier report by Hastings on the physiology of fatigue 1 called attention to the fact that following long continued exercise the resistance of erythrocytes to laking increased “at a diminishing rate,” but there are no conclusions regarding the condition or proportion of white cells in his study. It was decided to carry on this study on subjects who had exercised until they were greatly fatigued and compare the results of study of the blood picture during this period with the normal blood picture before exercise and with that following recovery from fatigue.

Microscopic studies were made on blood smears, stained with Wright's stain, at intervals before and during the recovery period following fatigue as follows: preliminary examination before exercise, immediately after exercise, and at intervals of one-half hour, one hour and 2 hours after exercise. Forty male volunteers from the various athletic teams and classes were used in this study. A study of the results of the examination of these slides has been tabulated in Table I.

The distribution of monocytes, eosinophiles, and basophiles did not vary significantly.

Discussion. From the study of the tabulations it appears that, contrary to expectations, there was an immediate decrease in the relative number of polymorphs in more than one-half of the cases studied immediately after exercise or at the onset of the fatigue phase. Among the lymphocytes the greatest change appears as a relative increase in numbers of large lymphocytes as well as a significant relative increase in the total lymphocytes in more than one-half of the cases studied.