Exercise Testing and Prescription in Patients with Congenital Heart Disease

Table 2

Criteria for terminating exercise testing in children with CHD.

(1) Clinical	Symptoms as chest pain, severe headache, dizziness, chills, sustained nausea, inappropriate dyspnoea
	Signs as sustained pallor, clammy skin, disorientation, inappropriate affect
	Patient requests termination of the test
(2) Electrocardiography	Failure of heart rate to increase with exercise, and extreme fatigue, dizziness, or other symptoms suggestive of insufficient cardiac output
	Premature ventricular contractions (PVC) with increasing frequency
	Ventricular tachycardia (run of >3 PVCs)
	Supraventricular tachycardia
	ST segmental depression, or elevation, of more than 3 mm
	Triggering of atrioventricular (AV) block (2nd degree AV-block type Mobitz or 3rd degree AV block) by exercise
	Triggering of QTc lengthening >500 ms
(3) Blood pressure	Excessive levels (age dependent)—systolic blood pressure >250 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure >125 mmHg
	Progressive fall in systolic blood pressure with increasing work rate
(4) Progressive fall in oxygen saturation to <90% or a 10-point drop from resting saturation in a symptomatic patient

Modified from Connuck [8] and Paridon et al. [12].