Correlation between cardio-pulmonary exercise test variables and ă health-related quality of life among children with congenital heart ă diseases

Background: Health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) stands as a ă determinant ``patient-related outcome'' and correlates with ă cardio-pulmonary exercise test (CPET) in adults with chronic heart ă failure or with a congenital heart disease (CHD). No such correlation ă has been established in pediatric cardiology. ă Methods and results: 202 CHD children aged 8 to 18 performed a CPET ă (treadmill n = 96, cycle-ergometer n = 106). CHD severity was stratified ă into 4 groups. All children and parents filled out the Kidscreen HR-QoL ă questionnaire. Peak VO2, anaerobic threshold (AT), and oxygen pulse ă followed a downward significant trend with increasing CHD severity and ă conversely for VE/VCO2 slope. Self-reported and parent-reported physical ă well-being HR-QoL scores correlated with peak VO2 (respectively r = ă 0.27, p