Summary. Introduction and aim. Ergometric testing of physical working capacity (PWC) has a long tradition in occupational and sports medicine, as well as in medical rehabilitation and recreation. In previous experimental and clinical-physiological studies of the Truskavetsian Scientific School of Balneology the influence of the spa's balneological agents on the PWC of both healthy rats and different categories of patients of both sexes was analyzed, as well as its relationship with the parameters of the neuro-endocrine-immune complex, metabolism, hemostasis and biophotonics. Among the critical remarks of the reviewers, the most significant was the small sample size and gender imbalance. This study initiates a new project «Predictors and accompaniments of the two-stage bicycle ergometric test», the implementation of which begins with the analysis of hemodynamics and metabolic parameters. Material and methods. We examined 63 women (aged 29÷76 years) and 56 men (aged 25÷70 years) with chronic gastroenterological and urological pathology in remission before and after a 1–3-week course of balneotherapy at the Truskavets’ spa. The main subject of the study was a two-stage bicycle ergometry test. At the same time, blood pressure, blood flow in both forearms and its response to occlusion, as well as lipid, electrolyte and nitrogen profiles of plasma/serum were recorded. Results. A wide range of PWC 150 levels (Mean ± SD) was found, grouped into 4 clusters. The most numerous (180 cases out of 238) was a normal test (2.66 ± 0.54 W/kg; Z-score: 0.00 ± 0.54). In 21 cases, a reduced PWC 150 level was found (1.53 ± 0.32 W/kg; Z: −1.52 ± 0.46), and in 31 cases, an increased one (3.43 ± 0.45 W/kg; Z: 1.35 ± 0.28). At the same time, in 6 cases an abnormally high PWC 150 level was registered (4.45 ± 0.73 W/kg; Z: 3.32 ± 0.83). Discriminant analysis revealed 22 variables (4 rheographic, 4 electrolytic, 2 uricemic, 4 hemodynamic, 7 lipids, and the metabolic syndrome index), in the aggregate of which all four PWC 150 clusters significantly differ from each other (classification accuracy 96.6 %). A regression model was created with 6 variables (basal blood flow in both forearms, serum Ca, erythrocyte K, plasma TG/α-LP index, and sex index), which explain 79.9 % of the variance of PWC 150 and allow predicting its level with an error of 0.33 W/kg.

Conclusion. In patients of the Truskavets’ spa, the level of PWC 150 is in a wide range – from low to abnormally high, and is naturally associated with deviations in a number of hemodynamic and metabolic parameters caused by chronic diseases, as well as sex. Targeted influence on the identified predictors will probably make it possible to increase the efficiency of recovery or further increase PWC₁₅₀.

Keywords: two-stage cycle ergometric test, hemodynamics, metabolism, relationships, chronic urological and gastroenterological pathology, the Truskavets’ spa

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