Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing and Interpretation of the Major Related Variables in Patients with Congenital Heart Disease

ABSTRACT

Cardiac surgery significantly influences cardiac autonomic nervous activity (CANA) and pulmonary function, resulting in abnormal cardiopulmonary responses during exercise testing in postoperative patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). In addition, for children, natural developmental changes must always be considered. Exercise-related cardiopulmonary derived variables, such as abnormal heart rate (HR) response, poor exercise capacity, and enhanced exercise ventilation, reflect the severity of heart failure and sometimes provide useful guides to clinical decision-making. However, although these variables may be informative, surgery-related abnormal responses of these variables should be taken into account as should developmental influences. Consequently, the obtained variables require careful and knowledgeable interpretation. Furthermore, exercise-related arrhythmias, which may require medical intervention, are more common in adult than in child CHD patients.