[Blood boosting today]

Abstract

The last Winter Olympics and recent cycling events have once again called attention to the use by endurance sportsmen and women of a variety of approaches designed to increase the blood hemoglobin concentration and oxygen-carrying capacity. An increased hemoglobin concentration and maximal oxygen uptake can be achieved by training at high altitude or by "living high and training low". It can also be procured by "blood boosting" with erythropoietin or darbepoietin, blood infusion, or misuse of hemoglobin-based oxygen carriers. This paper describes methods of increasing oxygen transport, with the accent on blood infusion, which is again relevant today with the development of a test able to detect recombinant human erythropoietins.