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Development of a Pediatric Cardiology Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing Database

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Abstract

Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) provides clinicians with information vital to the management of pediatric cardiology patients. CPET can also be used to measure cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) in these patients. CRF is a robust marker of overall health in children. However, a complete understanding of CRF in pediatric cardiology patients is limited by lack of large, standardized CPET databases. Our purpose was to develop a standardized CPET database, describe available data at our institution, and discuss challenges and opportunities associated with this project. CPETs performed from 1993 to present in an urban pediatric hospital were collected and compiled into a research database. Historical data included demographic and clinical variables and CPET outcomes, and additional variables were calculated and coded to facilitate analyses in these cohorts. Patient diagnoses were coded to facilitate sub-analyses of specific cohorts. Quality assurance protocols were established to ensure future database contributions and promote inter-institutional collaborations. This database includes 10,319 CPETs (56.1% male), predominantly using the Bruce Protocol. Patients ranging from ages 6 to 18 years comprise 86.8% of available CPETs. Diagnosis classification scheme includes patients with structurally normal hearts (n = 3,454), congenital heart disease (n = 3,614), electrophysiological abnormalities (n = 2,082), heart transplant or cardiomyopathy (n = 833), and other diagnoses (n = 336). Historically, clinicians were provided with suboptimal interpretive resources for CPET, often generalizing inferences from these resources to non-representative clinical populations. This database supports representative CRF comparisons and establishes a framework for future CRF-based registries in pediatric patients referred for CPET, ultimately improving clinical decision-making regarding fitness in these populations.

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The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 645 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1100, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA

    Garett Griffith

  2. Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Stem Cell Transplantation, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Robert I. Liem

  3. Division of Cardiology, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Michael Carr & Kendra Ward

  4. Rush University College of Health Sciences, Chicago, IL, USA

    Tyler Corson

  5. Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, USA

    Robert I. Liem, Michael Carr & Kendra Ward

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  1. Garett Griffith
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  4. Tyler Corson
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  5. Kendra Ward
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by GG and KW. The first draft of the manuscript was written by GG, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Garett Griffith.

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This study received Institutional Review Board approval through LCH.

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Griffith, G., Liem, R.I., Carr, M. et al. Development of a Pediatric Cardiology Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing Database. Pediatr Cardiol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00246-023-03112-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00246-023-03112-1

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