Both transport delay (DELAY) and dynamic response (RESPONSE) of a mass spectrometer would theoretically result in considerable errors in the breath-by-breath calculation of VCO2 and VO2. However, curiously, the contribution of RESPONSE has been ignored. The purpose of this study is to quantify the error caused by RESPONSE. We found that RESPONSE of a mass spectrometer was regarded as a first-order response. We determined DELAY and time constant (T) of RESPONSE and compensated the on-line calculation for both DELAY and RESPONSE and for DELAY only. With T of 150 and 100 ms, deviations of VCO2 from the gas-collection method were 8 +/- 6 and 8 +/- 6 ml/min with compensation for both DELAY and RESPONSE, and 69 +/- 10 and 50 +/- 5 ml/min with compensation for DELAY only, respectively (mean +/- SD). Similar results were obtained with VO2. A computer simulation of error caused by RESPONSE disclosed that the error linearly increased with increasing T. We conclude that to be accurate within +/- 5% of the exact value, compensation should be made when T exceeds 25 ms.

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