Reference Values for Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing in Young Male Slovak Athletes.

BACKGROUND: The reference values of young athletes for cardiopulmonary exercise testing are lacking. Expert opinions encourage production of local values specific for certain population. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study population consisted of 136 healthy male caucasian athletic children and adolescents coming from one specific football school in northern Slovakia. Exercise testing with continuous electrocardiography was performed, and ventilatory parameters, oxygen uptake (VO2), and carbon dioxide (CO2) production were measured continuously with a respiratory gas analysis system. RESULTS: Peak VO2max/kg was changing very little across the childhood, whereas the peak work rate, heart rate and O2Pulse were. Linear regression analysis showed a significant effect of age on VE/VCO2. CONCLUSION: This work provides a reference values for the most important cardiopulmonary variables that can be obtained during cardiopulmonary exercise testing in athletic children.

Changes of Motile Ciliary Phenotype in Patients with Primary Ciliopathies.

Primary ciliopathies are a group of disorders associated with abnormal formation and function of primary cilia. Many cilia-associated proteins found in primary cilia are also present in motile cilia. Such proteins are important for the ciliary base, such as the transition zone or basal bodies, and the intraflagellar transport. Their exact role in the respiratory motile cilia is unsettled. In this prospective clinical single-center study, we investigated the hypothesis that these proteins regulate the function of motile cilia. We addressed the issue by defining the motile cilia beat frequency in the respiratory tract of patients with primary ciliopathies accompanied by chronic kidney disease and comparing it in those without kidney involvement. Ciliary beat frequency in the nasal mucosa samples was evaluated by the ciliary analysis software LabVIEW. Both children and their parents with primary ciliopathies and kidney involvement had significantly lower median airway ciliary beat frequencies than those without kidney involvement who have normal ciliary motility. Further, the ciliary beat frequency is inversely associated with the serum creatinine level. These findings strongly suggest that kidney involvement in patients with primary ciliopathy may underlie the development of motile cilia dysfunction in the respiratory tract, potentially increasing respiratory morbidity.