Exercise testing in children before and after surgical treatment of aortic stenosis

Twenty-three children with valvar or discrete subvalvar aortic stenosis underwent a controlled, progressive bicycle exercise test within 6 months before and 3-30 months after surgery for left ventricular outflow tract obstruction. The patients were divided into three groups according to the preoperative resting gradient of left ventricular to aortic peak systolic pressure: 30-69 mm Hg (group A), 70-99 mm Hg (group B), and greater than or equal to 100 mm Hg (group C). Preoperatively, 19 of 23 patients (83%) developed significant ST depression (greater than or equal to 1.0 mm) during exercise, whereas only seven (30%) had abnormal ST depression at rest. Postoperatively, mean exercise-induced ST depression regressed to less than 1 mm in all three groups. In the total population the frequency of ST depression greater than 1 mm was significantly reduced after surgical treatment and mean total work and peak exercise systolic blood pressure were significantly increased within 12 months after surgery. Total work increased significantly in group B within 12 months and in group C within 13-24 months after surgery, but remained unchanged on group A. Peak exercise heart rates were similar before and after surgery in each group. Peak exercise systolic pressures increased after surgery in all three groups, but the mean differences were statistically significant only in group C patients tested 13-24 months after surgery. The results of this study show that exercise testing is useful for quantifying the severity of aortic stenosis and documenting the clinical improvement (or lack thereof) after surgical treatment, and that properly supervised exercise testing can be performed at minimal risk to children with significant aortic stenosis.