Heart failure is a health problem associated with disability and mortality. Physicians may stratify the risk of adult patients with heart failure using a cardiopulmonary exercise testing. Until now, in childhood this evaluation has been poorly used. The purpose of this study is to compare the peak oxygen uptake and minute ventilation/carbon dioxide production slope among children with heart failure versus children without heart disease (control).
Methods: Thirty-eight children with heart failure were compared with 194 children without heart disease. All of them performed cardiopulmonary exercise testing using a symptom-limited ramp protocol. Differences between groups were compared using Chi-squared test, Student's t test, or ANOVA. Any value of p < 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: Children with heart failure were older, taller, and with a higher prevalence of male gender. This group had also a lower peak oxygen uptake (27 ± 10 ml O2/kg/min) compared to the control group (37 ± 10 ml O2/kg/min); p < 0.001. The minute ventilation/carbon dioxide production was higher in the heart failure group (31 ± 4) than in controls (28 ± 6); p < 0.001.
Conclusion: Children with heart failure showed lower peak oxygen uptake and higher minute ventilation/carbon dioxide production slope than the control group.