Efficacy of interdisciplinary rehabilitation in child cancer survivors: Impact on physical fitness, fatigue and body composition after 1-year follow-up.

Objective: Childhood cancer survivors experience reduced physical activity level, participation as well as health-related quality of life. This prospective, pre-/post-intervention and follow-up cohort study aims to determine the efficacy of an interdisciplinary rehabilitation on improving physical fitness, fatigue and body composition.

Methods: A total of 24 childhood cancer survivors (mean age: 12.

Paediatric subaortic stenosis: long-term outcome and risk factors for reoperation.

Objectives: Surgical repair of subaortic stenosis (SAS) is associated with a substantial reoperation risk. We aimed to identify risk factors for reintervention in relation to discrete and tunnel-type SAS morphology.

Methods: Single-centre retrospective study of paediatric SAS diagnosed between 1992 and 2017.

Analysis of the recovery phase after maximal exercise in children with repaired tetralogy of Fallot and the relationship with ventricular function.

Background: Few studies demonstrate delayed recovery after exercise in children and adults with heart disease. We assess the recovery patterns of gas exchange parameters and heart rate (HR) in children with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot (rToF) compared to healthy peers and investigate the correlation with ventricular function and QRS duration.

Methods: 45 children after rToF and 45 controls performed a maximal incremental cardiopulmonary exercise test.

A new dimension in patent foramen ovale size estimation.

Background: Detailed multidimensional assessment of patent foramen ovale (PFO) size with transesophageal echocardiography (TOE) may help to determine PFO pathogenicity in cryptogenic stroke patients. We explored the potential additive value of Live xPlane and three-dimensional (3D) TOE anatomical PFO sizing techniques.

Methods: Imaging data of 45 patients who underwent a 3D TOE-assisted percutaneous PFO closure were studied.

Different Patterns of Cerebral and Muscular Tissue Oxygenation 10 Years After Coarctation Repair.

The purpose of this study was to assess whether the lower exercise tolerance in children after coarctation repair is associated with alterations in peripheral tissue oxygenation during exercise. A total of 16 children after coarctation repair and 20 healthy control subjects performed an incremental ramp exercise test to exhaustion. Cerebral and locomotor muscle oxygenation were measured by means of near infrared spectroscopy.

Echocardiography during submaximal isometric exercise in children with repaired coarctation of the aorta compared with controls.

Objective: Patients with repaired coarctation (RCoA) remain at higher risk of cardiac dysfunction, initially often only detected during exercise. In this study, haemodynamics of isometric handgrip (HG) and bicycle ergometry (BE) were compared in patients with RCoA and matched controls (MCs).

Methods: Case-control study of 19 children with RCoA (mean age 12.

Differences in cerebral and muscle oxygenation patterns during exercise in children with univentricular heart after Fontan operation compared to healthy peers.

Background: We assess whether the lower exercise tolerance in children with univentricular heart (UVH) after Fontan operation is associated with altered peripheral muscular and cerebral tissue oxygenation.

Methods: 18 children with UVH and 20 healthy subjects performed an incremental ramp exercise test. Changes in the cerebral and muscular pattern of oxygenated (OHb) and deoxygenated hemoglobin (HHb) and local tissue oxygenation (TOI) were analyzed by means of Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS).

Evaluation of cardiopulmonary exercise testing, heart function, and quality of life in children after allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Background: Physical fitness is an important determinant of quality of life (QOL) after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Cardiac function can influence exercise performance. The aim of this study was to assess these factors and their interrelationship.

Exercise performance and quality of life in children with cystic fibrosis and mildly impaired lung function: relation with antibiotic treatments and hospitalization.

Unlabelled: This study evaluates the impact of antibiotic treatments and hospitalization on exercise performance and health-related quality of life (QOL) in children with mild cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease. Forty-seven children between 7 and 17 years with mild CF underwent a maximal exercise test including spiro-ergometry and filled out a QOL-questionnaire (PedsQL™). Amount of antibiotic treatments (AB) and hospitalization days in the last 3 years were reviewed.

Characterizing cerebral and locomotor muscle oxygenation to incremental ramp exercise in healthy children: relationship with pulmonary gas exchange.

Aims: To characterize the oxygenation responses at cerebral and locomotor muscle level to incremental exercise in children and to assess the interrelationship with the pulmonary gas exchange responses.

Methods: Eighteen children (9 boys, 9 girls) (mean age 10.9 ± 1.

An integrated view on the oxygenation responses to incremental exercise at the brain, the locomotor and respiratory muscles.

In the past two decades oxygenation responses to incremental ramp exercise, measured non-invasively by means of near-infrared spectroscopy at different locations in the body, have advanced the insights on the underpinning mechanisms of the whole-body pulmonary oxygen uptake ([Formula: see text]) response. In healthy subjects the complex oxygenation responses at the level of locomotor and respiratory muscles, and brain were simplified and quantified by the detection of breakpoints as a deviation in the ongoing response pattern as work rate increases. These breakpoints were located in a narrow intensity range between 75 and 90 % of the maximal [Formula: see text] and were closely related to traditionally determined thresholds in pulmonary gas exchange (respiratory compensation point), blood lactate measurements (maximal lactate steady state), and critical power.

Evaluation of Exercise Performance, Cardiac Function, and Quality of Life in Children After Liver Transplantation.

Background: In children, after having liver transplantation (LT), it is important to assess the quality of life (QOL). Physical fitness is an important determinant of QOL, and because cardiac function can influence exercise performance, it is the purpose of the present study to assess these factors.

Methods: Children in stable follow-up for more than 6 months post-LT were invited to participate in a case control study.

Pulmonary function in children after surgical and percutaneous closure of atrial septal defect.

This study aimed to study differences in lung function after surgical and percutaneous atrial septal defect (ASD) closure. Several studies have demonstrated abnormalities of pulmonary function in adults and children with ASD. These abnormalities persist even a few years after correction.