Alan Richardson

University of Brighton · School of Sport and Health Sciences

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate whether measures of cardiopulmonary fitness and relative exercise intensity were associated with high sensitivity cardiac troponin T (cTnT) rise after a road marathon. Methods: Fifty-two marathon runners (age 39±11 years, body mass 76.2±12.9kg, height 1.74±0.09m) attended the laboratory between 2 and 3...

PurposeElite endurance runners frequently utilise live high-train high (LHTH) altitude training to improve endurance performance at sea level (SL). Individual variability in response to the hypoxic exposure have resulted in contradictory findings. In the present case study, changes in total haemoglobin mass (tHbmass) and physiological capacity, in...

Objectives Endurance exercise is known to cause a rise in serum creatinine. It is not known to what extent this rise reflects renal stress and a potential acute kidney injury (AKI). Increases in Insulin Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 7 (IGFBP7) and Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloprotinases-2 (TIMP-2), urinary biomarkers of cell cycle arrest and ren...

Objectives This study aimed to examine the impact of extreme heat exposure frequency on inflammation and well-being in UK Fire Service personnel. Methods 136 Fire personnel and 14 controls (CON) were recruited [92 Firefighters (FF), 44 Breathing Apparatus Instructors (BAI)]. BAI were split into low (LBAI; ≤15 exposures per month) and high (HBAI; ≥...

Abstract Objectives To assess how biomarkers indicating central nervous system insult (neurobiomarkers) vary in peripheral blood with exertional-heat stress from prolonged endurance exercise. Design Observational study of changes in neuron specific enolase (NSE), S100 calcium-binding protein B (S100β), Glial Fibrillary Acid Protein (GFAP) and Ubiqu...

Objectives The purpose was to directly assess in-competition thermoregulatory responses in recreational runners during a city marathon conducted in cool, ambient conditions using a two-pill ingestion strategy. Methods Thirty-two recreational runners (age: 38.7 ± 10.2 years, mass: 73.9 ± 11.0 kg, height: 177 ± 8 cm) were invited to participate in t...

The 2021 Brighton Marathon Medical Team Experience Long T, Leckie T, Fitzpatrick D, Hodgson L, Weller C, Grimaldi R, Galloway R, Richardson A, Galloway R, Stacey M Introduction: The 2021 Brighton Marathon took place on the 12/09/2021. Medical provision for the marathon runners is provided by a unified system combining St John Ambulance staff and h...

Background As a sequela of the COVID-19 pandemic, a large cohort of critical illness survivors have had to recover in the context of ongoing societal restrictions. Objective We aimed to use smartwatches (Fitbit Charge 3; Fitbit LLC) to assess changes in the step counts and heart rates of critical care survivors following hospital admission with COV...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with an unprecedented number of critical care survivors. Their experiences through illness and recovery are likely to be complex, but little is known about how best to support them. This study aimed to explore experiences of illness and recovery from the perspective of survivors, their relative...

BACKGROUND As a sequelae of the COVID-19 pandemic, a large cohort of critical illness survivors have had to recover in the context of ongoing societal restrictions. OBJECTIVE To observe the recovery of survivors of critical care admission with COVID-19 using smartwatches, evaluate how these devices enabled a remote multidisciplinary team (MDT) to...

During the first wave of intensive care unit admissions with COVID-19, in response to the constraints of social distancing we introduced a new digitally enabled critical care rehabilitation pathway. Using smartwatch technology, this pathway rapidly enabled our multidisciplinary team to observe the recovery of a COVID-19 cohort across eight NHS acut...

p>Acute mountain sickness (AMS) occurs when there is failure of acclimatisation to high altitude. The aim of this study was to describe the relationship between physiological variables and the incidence of AMS during ascent to 5300 m. A total of 332 lowland-dwelling volunteers followed an identical ascent profile on staggered treks. Self-reported s...

Background/Aims The COVID-19 pandemic has created the need for research on how to effectively rehabilitate patients who have been discharged from an intensive care unit. This study is a protocol for a mixed methods feasibility study addressing the research questions: 1) what are the needs of patients who have survived COVID-19? 2) is the use of tec...

Background/Aims The COVID-19 pandemic has created the need for research on how to effectively rehabilitate patients who have been discharged from an intensive care unit. This study is a protocol for a mixed methods feasibility study addressing the research questions: 1) what are the needs of patients who have survived COVID-19 2) is the use of tech...

Objective: Abnormal biochemical measurements have previously been described in runners following marathons. The incidence of plasma sodium levels outside the normal range has been reported as 31%, and the incidence of raised creatinine at 30%. This study describes the changes seen in electrolytes and creatinine in collapsed (2010-2019 events) and...

New findings: What is the central question of this study? Fire service instructors are frequently exposed to live fire scenarios, representing the most extreme chronic occupational heat exposure. These individuals report a series of unique health issues. We sought to identify whether the number of exposures completed was associated with inflammato...

Post-exercise cardiac troponin (cTn) elevation is a recognised phenomenon which historically has been detected using standard sensitivity assays. More recently high-sensitivity assays have been developed and are now the gold standard for detection of cTn in the clinical setting. Although the assay's enhanced sensitivity confers benefits it has crea...

Objectives: Fire Service Instructors (FSI) experience repeated fire exposures a median of 13 ± 8 times a month; consequently they may develop an acclimatised state. However, the chronic immunological implications of heat acclimation are yet to be understood. This study aimed to establish whether FSI exhibit an increased heat tolerance and altered...

Objectives: This study aimed to identify specific health and well-being issues that women firefighters may experience as part of their daily working practices. Issues identified from this under-represented population can drive future research, education, and strategy to guide safety and health practices. Methods: A total of 840 women firefighter...

Endurance exercise is an established cause of cardiac troponin (cTn) elevation, of further interest is whether this rise represents clinical significance. This study compared cTnT rise in three cohorts of marathon runners using a high sensitivity assay; control runners, those with known heart disease and runners who collapsed at the finish line. Co...

Fire service instructors (FSI) regularly experience different types of fire exercises, however the strain experienced from these scenarios is not well understood. This study aims to identify the physiological and perceptual strain of Fire Service Instructors (FSI) to three training exercises: DEMO, ATTACK, COMPARTMENT, and the different roles perfo...

Heat tolerance tests identify those susceptible to heat illnesses and monitor heat adaptations. Currently, tolerance tests do not replicate the uncompensable heat strain environments experienced in some occupations. In addition, tests can take up to 2 hours to complete, and cannot offer intra and inter individual comparisons, due to the use of a fi...

This study sought to establish perceptions of elite endurance athletes on the role and worth of altitude training. Elite British endurance runners were surveyed to identify the altitude and hypoxic training methods utilised, along with reasons for use, and any situational, cultural and behaviour factors influencing these. Prior to the 2012 Olympics...

Analysis of Fire Service Instructors (FSI) working practices and health is needed to minimise health risks related to heat illness, cardiovascular events and immunological stress. Online surveys were distributed to UK FSI and Firefighters (FF). One hundred and thirty FSI (age: 43±7yrs) and 232 FF (age: 41±8yrs) responded. FSI experienced 2–10 live...

This study aimed to identify a pre-cooling method to reduce the physiological and perceptual strain, and the inflammatory response, experienced by individuals who wear personal protective equipment. Eleven males (age 20 ± 2 years, weight 75.8 ± 9.3 kg, height 177.1 ± 5.0 cm) completed 15min pre-cooling (phase change vest [PCV], forearm cooling [ARM...

Presentation to Fire Fit Uk. Fire instructor health and working practices. Methods to reduce physiological stress in live fire training.

Fire Service Instructors (FSI) experience high levels of physiological and perceptual strain on a regular basis, due to their frequent exposure to live fire situations. Consequently, they are at risk of exertional heat illness and cardiovascular events, and may experience physiological and immunological stress similar to overtraining. FSI have also...

Heat tolerance tests are used in the military and with athletes to identify individuals who are susceptible to heat illnesses and to monitor adaptations. The standard test developed by Moran et al (2007) (MHTT: 2hr walk at 5km.hr-1 1% gradient, 40°C 40% RH, in shorts and t-shirt) offers poor ecological validity to situations where protective clothi...

Presentation to UK Fire Service training centres.

Following heat acclimation (HA), endurance running performance remains impaired in hot vs temperate conditions. Combining HA with precooling demonstrates no additive benefit in intermittent sprint, or continuous cycling exercise protocols, during which heat strain may be less severe compared to endurance running. This study investigated the effect...

Multistage, ultra-endurance events in hot, humid conditions necessitate thermal adaptation, often achieved through short term heat acclimation (STHA), to improve performance by reducing thermoregulatory strain and perceptions of heat stress. This study investigated the physiological, perceptual and immunological responses to STHA prior to the Marat...

This study investigated the effect of 5 days of controlled short-term heat acclimation (STHA) on the determinants of endurance performance and 5-km performance in runners, relative to the impairment afforded by moderate heat stress. A control group (CON), matched for total work and power output (2.7 W·kg⁻¹), differentiated thermal and exercise cont...

Fire Service Instructors frequently experience high levels of physiological and perceptual strain during live fire exposures. Instructors are also at risk of cardiovascular illnesses, with cardiac death being the greatest cause of fire fighter death. Current practice for UK instructors is to select undergarment type based on personal preference, be...

Purpose Ischaemic preconditioning (IP) has been shown to be ergogenic for endurance performance in normothermic conditions and alleviate physiological strain under hypoxia, potentially through haemodynamic and/or metabolic mechanisms. Exertional hyperthermia is characterised by competition for blood flow between the muscles and skin, an enhanced me...

Sprint interval training (SIT) is an efficient intervention capable of improving aerobic capacity and exercise performance. This experiment aimed to determine differences in training adaptations and the inflammatory responses following 2 weeks of SIT (30 s maximal work, 4 min recovery; 4–7 repetitions) performed in normoxia or hypoxia. Forty-two un...

Erythropoietin (EPO) rapidly decreases on return to sea level (SL) after chronic altitude exposure. Acute hypoxia may provide an additional stimulus to prevent the decline in EPO. Proinflammatory cytokines, interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) have been shown to inhibit EPO production. Optimal normobaric hypoxic exposure has...

Introduction The South East Regional Fire Service requested an investigation into the effect of different undergarments worn by fire service instructors, to help improve thermoregulation and reduce the strain experienced. Literature suggests that wearing shorts and t-shirt may reduce heat strain [1], whilst no research has yet established the effec...

The 6-minute walk test (6MWT) is a reliable and valid tool for determining an individual's functional capacity, and has been used to predict summit success. The primary aim of the study was to evaluate whether a 6MWT in normobaric hypoxia could predict physiological responses and exercise performance at altitude. The secondary aim was to determine...

A new Radiometer™ hemoximeter (ABL-80) has recently become available to measure carboxyhaemoglobin concentration for the optimized CO-rebreathing method (oCOR-method). Within the English Institute of Sport (EIS), hemoximeters are used in three different laboratories; therefore, precision and agreement of total haemoglobin mass (tHbmass) determinati...

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the use of hypoxic sprint interval training (SIT) for the improvement of aerobic capacity. Method: 27 participants (mean ± SD), age 21 ± 1 yrs, body mass 72.4 ± 9.7 kg and height 175 ±7 cm, completed an V̇O2peak incremental exercise test and time to exhaustion (TTE) trial (80% V̇O2peak) pre and post...

The optimized carbon monoxide (CO) rebreathing method (oCOR-method) is routinely used to measure total haemoglobin mass (tHbmass). The tHbmass measure is subject to a test-retest typical error of ∼2%, mostly from the precision of carboxyhaemoglobin (HbCO) measurement. We hypothesized that tHbmass would be robust to differences in the bolus of CO ad...

Fluid balance is known to alter with hypoxia and exercise, yet the combined effects have not been investigated using a controlled acute hypoxic exposure. Seven healthy participants were hypohydrated 24hrs prior to testing, using exercise and fluid restriction, causing a ~2.5% loss in body mass. Participants then rested in either normoxia with no fl...

The effect hydration status has on exposure to hypoxia is unclear. The purpose of the study was to identify how hydration status, above and below euhydrated levels, affects the physiological responses and onset of acute mountain sickness symptoms during acute normobaric hypoxia. Eight males completed intermittent walking tests under normobaric hypo...

Evidence of the effect of dehydration on physiological responses to hypoxia is limited. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of hypohydration severity on physiological, renal hormonal and psychological responses to acute hypoxia. Eight males completed intermittent walking tests under normobaric hypoxic conditions (FI O(2) = 0.13) a...

Background: The level of environmental hypobaric hypoxia that affects climbers at the summit of Mount Everest (8848 m [29,029 ft]) is close to the limit of tolerance by humans. We performed direct field measurements of arterial blood gases in climbers breathing ambient air on Mount Everest. Methods: We obtained samples of arterial blood from 10...

The study aimed to examine the physiological responses to acute normobaric hypoxia during an intermittent walking protocol. Twelve active healthy male participants completed a 125-minute test that involved rest and walking (50% VO(2max)) during normoxic (20.93%O(2)) and 2 hypoxic conditions (14%O(2) and 12%O(2)). A range of physiological markers we...

Caudwell Xtreme Everest (CXE) is a large healthy volunteer field study investigating human adaptation to environmental hypoxia. More than 200 individuals were studied at sea-level and in four laboratories on the trek to Everest Base Camp (5,300 m). Fifteen physicians climbed high on Everest and continued the studies as they ascended; eight of these...