A Java software for calculating mean breath-by-breath variability in gas exchange parameters: application in young cardiac patients with exercise-related periodic breathing.

Oscillatory changes in parameters of gas exchange have been reported during rest and exercise in cardiac patients with severely depressed left ventricular function. As a result of the growing interest in this oscillatory phenomenon, several methods for assessment of this ventilatory response have been presented in cardiovascular research. Nowadays, objective measurement becomes more important.

Cardiac rehabilitation reduces the rate of major adverse cardiac events after percutaneous coronary intervention.

Background: Despite multiple publications on effects of rehabilitation in cardiac patients, rehabilitation is not fully known to be of value in post-percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) patients.

Aims: To investigate the influence of cardiac rehabilitation on the incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) in post-PCI patients.

Methods: Retrospectively and nonrandomized 140 post-PCI patients (107 males, mean age 62 (7) years) participated in a 3-month rehabilitation program, starting 2 weeks post-PCI, while 83 post-PCI patients (54 males, mean age 68 (8) years) did not and were all followed up for 15 months.

Oxygen uptake versus exercise intensity: a new concept in assessing cardiovascular exercise function in patients with congenital heart disease.

Objective: To assess the relation between exercise intensity and oxygen uptake during graded exercise in paediatric patients who underwent surgical repair of congenital heart disease, and to compare it with conventional measures of aerobic exercise function.

Design: Cross sectional study. Exercise testing was performed on a treadmill and gas exchange was measured on a breath by breath basis.

Dynamics of respiratory gas exchange during exercise after correction of congenital heart disease.

In pediatric exercise testing, conventional measures of aerobic exercise function such as maximal O2 uptake or the ventilatory anaerobic threshold (VAT) use only one value for the assessment of exercise capacity. We studied a more comprehensive approach to evaluate aerobic exercise function by analyzing the steepness of the slope of CO2 production (VCO2) vs. VO2 above the VAT (S3).

Serial cardiorespiratory exercise testing in patients with congenital heart disease.

Aerobic capacity of patients with different forms of congenital heart disease was serially evaluated in 79 patients and the evolution was correlated with the lesion and the level of daily activity. The patients were divided into six groups: patients with a small ventricular septal defect (VSD) with mini shunt (n = 14), mild pulmonary valve stenosis with gradient < 40 mm Hg (PS) (n = 12), mild to moderate aortic valve stenosis (gradient 36 +/- 17 mmHg) (AS) (n = 12), patients 4.7 +/- 2.

Reliability of subjective estimates of exercise capacity after total repair of tetralogy of Fallot.

Sixty-nine patients (age 10 +/- 3.5 years, median 9.7 years) operated on for tetralogy of Fallot, underwent exercise testing 5.

Habitual level of physical activity and cardiorespiratory endurance capacity in children.

A total of 257 healthy children (140 boys, 117 girls) varying in age from 5.7 to 18.5 years underwent graded exercise tests on a treadmill.

Transabdominal or retroperitoneal approach to the aorto-iliac tract: a pulmonary function study.

An unselected consecutive series of 30 males, receiving an aorto-bifemoral Dacron graft for occlusive arterial disease, were randomised preoperatively to a transperitoneal or extraperitoneal approach. Pulmonary function tests (Forced Vital Capacity--Forced Expiratory Volume at 1 s) were performed once preoperatively and repeated four times postoperatively. As far as pulmonary function tests are concerned the results clearly demonstrated the superiority of the retroperitoneal to the transperitoneal approach.

Cardiorespiratory function during exercise in obese children.

Fifteen obese children, aged 4 to 16 years and ranging in body weight from 27.3 to 95 kg (median 67.5) and percentage overweight from 22 to 127% (median 40), underwent graded exercise testing on a treadmill and were compared with healthy peers of comparable age.

Exercise testing after correction of tetralogy of Fallot: the fallacy of a reduced heart rate response.

Thirty-nine patients, 5 to 19 years of age, were studied 1 to 10.5 years (mean 4.5) after surgical correction of tetralogy of Fallot (TF).

Ventilatory threshold measurement to evaluate maximal endurance performance.

The ventilatory (anaerobic) threshold during short-term exercise has been defined as the O2 uptake (VO2) immediately below the VO2 at which pulmonary ventilation (VE) increases disproportionally relative to VO2 and the ventilatory threshold for long-term exercise as the VO2 immediately below the VO2 at which the VE continues to increase with time rather than attain a steady state. Maximal endurance performance was determined by measurement of the maximal endurance time during treadmill runs at 90%, and 70% of the previously determined VO2 max. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how maximal endurance performance was related to both ventilatory thresholds and to VO2max, and to select which variable best explained maximal endurance performance.

Ventilatory anaerobic threshold for evaluating exercise performance in children with congenital left-to-right intracardiac shunt.

The ventilatory response to graded treadmill exercise was studied in 50 children with congenital heart disease (CHD), a left-to-right intracardiac shunt, and compared to that of age and sex-matched healthy children. In all these children, a breakpoint in the minute ventilation (VE) in relation to increasing oxygen uptake (VO2) was detected. Because of the reported coincidence of the nonlinear increase in VE and lactate with increasing VO2, this threshold has been named "ventilatory anaerobic threshold" (VAT), expressed in ml O2 X min-1 X kg-1.

Ventilatory anaerobic threshold in healthy children. Age and sex differences.

The ventilatory anaerobic threshold (VAT) during graded exercise was defined as the oxygen uptake (VO2) immediately below the exercise intensity at which pulmonary ventilation increased disproportionally relative to VO2. Since VAT is considered to be a sensitive and noninvasive measure for evaluating cardiorespiratory endurance performance, the purpose of the present study was to determine normal values in children. We examined 257 healthy children (140 boys and 117 girls) varying in age from 5.