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Cardiovascular responses to treadmill exercise testing in anemia
R K Kapoor1, A Kumar, M Chandra
1Department of Pediatrics, King George's Medical College, Lucknow.
Insights
Anemia in children significantly reduces exercise capacity and cardiovascular response. Anemic children showed lower exercise duration and metabolic equivalents compared to healthy peers.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric cardiology
- Exercise physiology
Background:
- Anemia is a common condition in children.
- Its impact on exercise performance and cardiovascular responses requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate exercise performance and cardiovascular responses in anemic children using treadmill testing.
- To compare these parameters between anemic children and healthy controls.
Main Methods:
- Prospective case-control study involving 41 anemic children (mild to severe) and 11 healthy children (aged 7-12 years).
- Subjects underwent exercise testing on a Quinton Model Q5000 treadmill using the Modified Naughton protocol.
- Parameters measured included heart rate, blood pressure, double product, ECG changes, exercise duration, and metabolic equivalents (METs).
Main Results:
- While resting and peak exercise cardiovascular parameters showed no significant differences, anemic children exhibited significantly lower gains in heart rate, double product, exercise duration, and METs compared to controls (p < 0.001).
- These findings suggest a blunted cardiovascular response to exercise in anemic children.
Conclusions:
- Anemia in children leads to reduced exercise capacity.
- The blunted cardiovascular responses are attributed to a depleted cardiac reserve in anemic individuals.
Objective:
To study exercise performance on a treadmill in anemic children.
Design:
Prospective case control study.
Setting:
Department of Pediatrics and Intensive Care Unit, Department of Medicine, King George's Medical College, Lucknow.
Subjects:
The study population consisted of 41 cases of anemia (10 mild, 21 moderate and 10 severe) and 11 normal age and height matched children aged between 7-12 years.
Methods:
These subjects were exercise tested on Quinton Model Q5000 treadmill using Modified Naughton Q5000 protocol. Heart rate, systolic blood pressure, double product, ECG changes, exercise duration and metabolic equivalents achieved during peak exercise were studied. Statistical analysis was performed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) test.
Results:
No significant difference was observed in values of resting heart rate, heart rate at peak exercise, recovery heart rate, blood pressure response, resting double product, double product at peak exercise, recovery double product and ECG changes in any of the study groups (p > 0.05). However, the gain in heart rate at peak exercise compared to basal value, and double product, total exercise duration and metabolic equivalent (MET) values at peak exercise were significantly low in anemic children on comparison to normal controls (p < 0.001).
Conclusions:
Cardiovascular responses are blunted in anemia, mainly because of depleted cardiac reserve.