BACKGROUND The reproducibility of cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) has not been established in young cystic fibrosis (CF) patients using a valid protocol. METHODS Thirteen 7-18 year olds completed three CPETs, separated by 48 h and 4-6 weeks. CPET involved a ramp-incremental cycling test with supramaximal verification. RESULTS Maximal oxygen uptake was repeatedly determined with no l...

Introduction. The relation between minute ventilation (VE) and carbon dioxide production (VCO(2)) can be characterised by the instantaneous ratio of ventilation to carbon dioxide production, the ventilatory equivalent for CO(2) (VEqCO(2)). We hypothesised that the time taken to achieve the lowest VEqCO(2) (time to VEqCO2 nadir) may be a prognostic marker in patients with chronic heart failure (...

Adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at high risk for morbidity and mortality. Identifying those who are at highest risk of complications can be challenging, in part because self-reported functional status is not a reliable indicator of physiological status. Individuals with CHD may present with exercise limitation due to a variety of cardiac and non-cardiac causes. Cardiopulmonary ex...

Editor—We thank Dr Dolenska for her letter and completely agree that the finding with respect to the predictive value of patient age is highly counterintuitive. Age is generally accepted as a powerful predictor of survival in many contexts. However, our results would suggest that it is the decline in fitness with advancing age which is the real predictor, rather than age per se. We do not belie...

INTRODUCTION Response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) can currently be assessed by clinical or echocardiographic criteria, and there is no strong evidence supporting the use of one rather than the other. Reductions in B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and C-reactive protein (CRP) have been shown to be associated with CRT response. This study aims to assess variation in BNP and CRP six...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether supplementation of carbohydrate together with peptide glutamine would increase exercise tolerance in soccer players. METHODS Nine male soccer players (mean age: 18.4 +/- 1.1 years; body mass: 69.2 +/- 4.6 kg; height: 175.5 +/- 7.3 cm; and maximum oxygen consumption of 57.7 +/- 4.8 ml x kg(-1) x min(-1)) were evaluated. All of them underwent a cardiopulmonary e...

BACKGROUND Peak oxygen consumption (V(O2)) and minute ventilation (V(E))/carbon dioxide production (V(CO2)) slope have been widely demonstrated to have strong prognostic value in patients with heart failure (HF). In the present study, we investigated the effect of HF etiology on the prognostic applications of peak V(O2) and Ve/V(CO2) slope. METHODS Two hundred sixty-eight subjects underwent s...

The use of cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) to evaluate cardiac and respiratory function was pioneered as part of preoperative assessment in the mid 1990s. Surgical procedures have changed since then. The patient population may have aged; however, the physiology has remained the same. The use of an accurate physiological evaluation remains as germane today as it was then. Certainly no 'm...

OBJECTIVE To compare the aerobic and anaerobic exercise capacity of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) with healthy controls, to determine if there were differences based on disease onset type, and to examine the relationship between aerobic and anaerobic exercise capacity in children with JIA. METHODS Sixty-two patients with JIA (mean +/- SD age 11.9 +/- 2.2 years, range 6.7-1...