Alterations in selected respiratory gas exchange parameters have been proposed as sensitive, noninvasive indices of the onset of metabolic acidosis (anaerobic threshold (AT) during incremental exercise. Our purposes were to investigate the validity and feasibility of AT detection using routine laboratory measures of gas exchange, i.e., nonlinear increases in VE and VCO2 and abrupt increases in FEO2. Additionally, we examined the comparability of the AT and VO2 max among three modes of exercise (arm cranking, leg cycling, and treadmill walk-running) with double determinations obtained from 30 college-age, male volunteer subjects. The AT's for arm cranking, leg cycling, and treadmill walk-running occurred at 46.5 +/- 8.9 (means +/- SD), 63.8 +/- 9.0, and 58.6 +/- 5.8% of VO2 max, respectively. No significant difference was found between the leg exercise modes (cycling and walk-running) for the AT while all pairwise arm versus leg comparisons were significantly different. Using nine additional subjects performing leg cycling tests, a significant correlation of r = 0.95 was found between gas exchange AT measurements (expressed as % VO2 max) and venous blood lactate AT measurements (% VO2 max). We conclude that the gas exchange AT is a valid and valuable indirect method for the detection of the development of lactic acidosis during incremental exercise.