SensLab Lactate Scout Assistant User manual

Product information about the „Lactate Scout Assistant“ analysis software(release 1.03, for Windows operating system) for correct use with the Lactate Scout - analyzerto determine lactate in whole blood

INTENDED USEThe Lactate Scout Assistant analysis software is only to be used with the Lactate Scout analyzer for data import and sports medical analysis, connec-ted by a special certiﬁed cable or Bluetooth adaptor (both manufactured by SensLab GmbH) with a regular Windows-PC (Minimum system require-ments: Windows 95b, Pentium 90 MHz, 64 MB free memory capacity, 200 MB free hard disk capacity). To ensure the correct use and to avoid potential mistakes, damages or loss of data, please read the product information and instructions for the Lactate Scout - analyzer, the PC - cable, the PC - system and the installed soft- and hardware components carefully.WARNING NOTICESThe handling of electronic components and computer equipment involves generally potential risks. Handling errors can cause impairment of functio-nality or irreversible damage on the connected devices, and loss of data.: So it is strictly recommended to take care during the installation and operation with the „Lactate Scout Assistant“ software, regarding technical documen-tations, instructions and system messages of the PC and its components.The „Lactate Scout Assistant“-software was checked of compatibility to a wide range of usual PC-environments and conﬁgurations. Anyway, we cannot exclude all potential risks by conﬂict with individual computer conﬁgurations, applications, drivers or hardware components during the installation or application of this software product: So it is strictly recom-mended to store settings and data (or to make a complete backup) before! The SensLab GmbH does not accept any claims such as compensation for loss of use, loss of earnings, or compensation for loss of stored data, or reduced or lost functionality of any 3rd party components. If you are in doubt of any instruction given herein, or if you are in doubt of your PC conﬁguration and standard procedures of your operating system, please contact an expert or ask your local dealer before. For an experied PC user, the complete installation of the „Lactate Scout Assistant“ software takes less than 10 minutes.Publisher:SensLab GmbH, Bautzner Str. 67, D - 04347 Leipzig Release-No. LSA INFO 140606-E

CONTENT1. General features2. Software installation3. PC connection4. User interface5. Buttons & menus6. Graphs & curves7. Data management8. Analysis9. Protocol print10. Special options11. Third party solutions

1. GENERAL FEATURESAs a data manager for the Lactate Scout pocket device, the Lactate Scout Assistant software offers many options for organizing readings, data import and export as well as the graphic display of lactate curves and other values. In addition, further relevant parameters as training conditions, effort level, heart rate and much more can be entered and managed manually.These features help beginners to get an overview in the essential parts of lactate based training. But it‘s also a helpful tool for professionals, focussed to a „pure“ data collection: In contrary to some other software solutions, the Lactate Scout Assistant doesn‘t interpret the transmitted data and is intentionally limited to a few calculation models in its analysis method.According to the various sports disciplines and scientiﬁc recommendations, there are different commercial software solutions in the market, realizing a wide range of more sophisticated options (as treadmill control, digital data import from heart rate monitors, VO2 analysis, various lactate threshold models etc.). SensLab and EKF diagnostic welcome these developments and are engaged in technical support of 3rd party software for best customer satisfaction: The Lactate Scout Assistant doesn‘t compete herein, but offers a low budget access to PC based sports diagnostics for everyone. The actual release 1.03 includes following features:1. Import of readings (stored or „online“) from the Lactate Scout pocket device by PC cable or Bluetooth adaptor (optionally available, please note product information. Without PC connection it‘s only possible to operate with externally delivered ﬁles or sample ﬁles)2. Chart summary of readings (single or step test measurements) including time, date, memory ID, step length, lactate, heart rate, temperature3. Graphic display of up to two step tests simultaneously, including approxi-mation of lactate curves based on polynomic or spline calculation4. Protocol print of up to two step tests simultaneously, including user data, charts and analysis results5. Analysis of the individual anaerobic lactate threshold (IANS), heart rate relation and effort level at IANS

6. Step test types: Treadmill, bike ergometer or ﬁeld test7. At ﬁeld tests, the velocity at IANS for the manually deﬁned distance and for 1000 meter standard distance is calculated additionally8. Supported analysis models: Mader, Keul, Simon9. Free Cursor positioning to calculate corresponding data as effort level and heart rate at each point of the displayed lactate curves10. Import of measured or pre-deﬁned step lenghts from Lactate Scout pocket analyzer (by using „dur“, „cdn“ or „clc“ function)11. Automatic compensation of effort level / lactate interpolation in case of aborted step test (using „dur“ function of the device)12. Manual entry and edit of step length, effort level, imported lactate readings, heart rate values, time and date13. Manual grouping of single measurements to step test measurements, manual deﬁnition of training level (PreLoad, Load or AfterLoad / P, L, A)14. Reset function for markings / data selection15. Parallel use of multiple devices (in different application windows)16. EMail-friendly ﬁle format (small sized)17. Free grouping and export of selected data in new ﬁles, e.g. for creating individual data sets to manage different persons18. Export of data as .CSV-ﬁle for import in usual ofﬁce applications19. Language support for German, English, Spanish or Italian (selectable during installation, if installed from Service-CD: Not included in download)Additional options as direct manual entry of new data sets or additional lac-tate values (without PC connection) are not featured by the Lactate Scout Assistant. Please ask your dealer for commercial software solutions and take a view of our 3rd party software directory on the last page of this manual.

2. SOFTWARE INSTALLATIONThe installation ﬁle for the Lactate Scout Assistant version 1.03 is available on CD or as download from www.senslab.de for free. Downloaded ﬁles are in ZIP-format and must be extracted by additional software tools (usu-ally implemented in common PC systems). Existing versions of the Lactate Scout Assistant must be removed before installation, therefore select the system settings „Add/remove software“ from Windows operating system. Removing an old version of the Lactate Scout Assistant does not harm the stored LSA-ﬁles, they can also be read and edited continually by new soft-ware versions without any change.To execute the installation, your PC system needs the Microsoft Installer (MSI) in version 2.0, as pre-installed in Windows XP. If using Windows XP, click twice on the ﬁle „LSASetup.msi“ for installation. For other operating systems (Windows 95, 98, Me, NT/2000), click on the ﬁle „Setup.exe“: This will install the MSI at ﬁrst, installing the Lactate Scout Assistant auto-matically afterwards. The Lactate Scout Assistant has low requirements in PC conﬁguration (Pentium 90 MHz, Windows 95b).By click on „Continue“, the installation will proceedwith the given settings. After succesfull installation,you will see this symbol on the Windows-desktop:Launching the LSASetup, a welcome message will appear at ﬁrst: Please take care to save all important data, and to close all running applications, to avoid any risk of system crashes or loss of data. For the next step click on „Continue“.Now you can select in which directory of your hard disk drive the application shall be installed. As the standard setting, the installer creates a new folder named „SensLab GmbH“ in the „Application“ folder of partition C: At this place usually all other appli-cations are installed, to launch easily from START menu in the Windows task bar („all applications“).To install the Lactate Scout Assistant in a different directory, click on „Browse“. To realize free access of this application for all users, activate „all users“.

3. PC CONNECTIONUsing the Lactate Scout Assistant, it‘s possible to edit lactate values, effort levels and many other parameters manually. Anyway, the import of the origin data requires a connection of the Lactate Scout device to the PC to create new ﬁ les. Without hardware connection (realized by PC cable or Bluetooth), the Lactate Scout Assistant is limited to operate with existing ﬁ les (e.g. the „example test“) only. of the PC cable. If your PC system doesn‘t support these kinds of connec-tions, you can connect it by special USB adaptors or use the Bluetooth adapter (requires a free USB port, Windows XP recommended).To transfer data to the software, the Lactate Scout must be switched on. The Lactate Scout Assistant scans automatically all available connections, special settings are not required. If nevertheless no communication will be realized (although all cables on PC and on Lactate Scout device are plugged in, and all connected devices are switched on), the system settings of the PC operating system may be changed by other applications and has to be checked. For professional support ask your local PC service provider.Lactate devices without integrated PC-connection and without support of the data protocol of the Lactate Scout cannot be used effectively by the Lactate Scout Assistant. Ask for commercial third party software solutions, featured with manual data entry. A selection of available products is listed in the Internet on www.senslab.de, www.ekf-diagnostic.de.The PC cable and Bluetooth adaptor for the Lactate Scout are available optionally, and certiﬁ ed especial-ly for medical application. The Lactate Scout Plus pocket device is already featured with Bluetooth and can be connected directly, without additional supplies. Product information and technical details can be given by local dealers or in the Internet (www.senslab.de, www.ekf-diagnostic.de). Never use different cables, without the speciﬁ c declaration of compatibility to the Lactate Scout pocket device by its manufacturer: Otherwise, the device can be severely damagd and the warranty will be void!Take care to follow the product information and sys-tem requirements: The CE safety PC cable, develo-ped for medical application in the European Union, must be connected on serial port (COM) and PS/2 port (mouse or keyboard). Mouse or keyboard can be plugged into the integrated second PS/2 socket

4. USER INTERFACELaunching the Lactate Scout Assistant (by double click on the desktop icon or selecting from the Start menu), a new blank application window will appearopen the sample ﬁle „example.lsa“ by menu „File/open“. Within this func-tion you can also open existing lsa-ﬁles for editing their data. For data trans-fer from the device, the Lactate Scout must be switched on and connected to the PC: Clicking the button „Receive data“, the Lactate Scout Assistant checks all data ports automatically, to load data from the connected device. Please note, all Lactate Scout devices have an unique, internally stored ID: To avoid data conﬂicts by using different devices, you can open, view and edit the data from one device in one window only (no merging of data).Now the data will be shown in a new application window, listed in the directory in the left corner („test list“). The latest readings are at the top, structured in columns: Selection, type of measurement (single „M“, step test „S“), ID (unlimited registration number of data set), storage place in device memory (1 - 250), date, test type and display (curve L1 or L2).• Single measurement• Step test:• Resting value / Preload (PrL)• Exercise value / Load (Ld)• „Cool down“ value / After load (AFL)TEST LIST VALUE DIRECTORY

The biggest part is taken by the graphic display, where the lactate curves and other elements will be draft. Clicking in the check box on the right side, the display of separa-te parameters can be switched on or off.Below this area, sometimes a red box with problem reports (e.g. „curve cannot be ap-proximated“) or special notes for required data entries will appear (e.g. „Please import data from Lactate Scout or open existing LSA-ﬁle“: This message will usually appear while launching the software).To get in touch with the main functions, without any data. At the beginning, please make familiar with the essential control elements and display areas of the user interface: As usual for Windows applications, a menu bar is placed at the top for access to frequently used operations. Essential functions (as „new ﬁle“, „open“, „save“ and „print“ etc.) are additionally available as control symbols below.T

Clicking in a data row, all related readings and values appear in the „value directory“ at the right side, added by additional columns as Selection, effort level, time, date, step length, effort unit, lactate, heart rate and temperature. Regardless the most values are given by the device memory automatically, the calculation of step length and effort level needs additional information, to enter manually by the option „test parameters“ (see below). Heart rates must always be entered manually, taken e.g. from the memory of a heart rate monitor or from personal notes, made during the training.To enter or to edit speciﬁc data manually, click to the speciﬁc ﬁeld in the sheet, enter the new data and conﬁrm by „Enter/Return“ on PC keyboard:Effort levels can also be edited by clicking with the right mouse button: It appears a context menu (Preload PrL, Load Ld, Afterload AFL): Select the effort level by mouse pointer, and conﬁrm by clicking left mouse button.Selecting a single measurement (M) from the test list, the value directory shows only the related, single data set in a single row. A step test measure-ment (S) contains a sequel of data sets, as shown above.Please note, the data sets of step test measurements are listed in the value directory by their date from top down: This means the ﬁrst reading appears at the top, and the latest reading at the end of the directory (in contrary to the sorting of the test list at left, with the latest reading at the top). The display of measurement time helps to understand this sequel.

5. BUTTONS & MENUSAfter loading a data ﬁle or importing stored data from Lactate Scout device, select test data from the test list in the left window. To select additional data sets, hold down the CTRL-key on the PC keyboard and click on data sets in the rows below or above. After selection, the button „Edit test parameter“ will be active, corresponding with the last selected test: By editing test parameters.Alternatively to the described setting on PC, the Lactate Scout device can also be used as data source for step length. Therefore, the „dur“ option of the Lactate Scout has to be used before (please note chapter 5, „timer functions“ in the Lactate Scout instruction guide).To calculate the individual anaerobic threshold (IAT), you can select diffe-rent mathematical models from Keul and Simon in the ﬁeld „Analysis mo-del“ (only available for treadmill and ﬁeld test). The standard setting is the established Mader-Model, operating with a ﬁxed threshold of 4 mmol/l. Fi-nally you must set the effort level (power/speed) by entering the start level and the continual increase. If these values are not deﬁned yet or unknown,you can enter essential settings, as required for analysis and graphical display of selected data.At ﬁrst you have to select the test type (tread-mill, ergometer/home trainer or ﬁeld test). The related effort unit (km/h, m/s, Watt) will be set automatically, to edit manually afterwards. Different units (as mph) will be integrated in future software releases. Now you have to set the step length (uniﬁed for all selected measu-rement data sets) by moving the square on the line at left or at right by mouse, or enter the time (or distance, if ﬁeld test was selected) for step length manually. During the training (Load phase), the usual step length is 3 min at least.you have to select „Individual Setting“. If all set-tings are done, click „OK“ to save it.Clicking on the third button „User data“, you have to enter the personal data. These settings (at least the christian and the familiar name) are related to all data in the ﬁle, and will also appear in the protocol print. Splitting data from different people is explained in chapter 7.Edit test

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