Reproducibility of cardiac output measurements by Doppler echocardiography in prepubertal children and adults.

The aim of this study was to examine reproducibility of stroke volume and cardiac output measurements by Doppler echocardiography during submaximal and maximal exercise in adults and children. Fourteen healthy children (8 girls and 6 boys aged 10.9 +/- 0.9yr) and eleven healthy young adults (1 female and 10 males aged 22.3 +/- 3.8 yr) underwent a progressive maximal upright cycle test until exhaustion with estimation of stroke volume and cardiac output by Doppler echocardiography on two separate occasions (one week apart). Maximal oxygen uptake and maximal heart rate were not significantly different between both tests in the children and adults indicating that similar exhaustive efforts were achieved at each test. No significant differences for mean values of stroke volume and cardiac output were observed at rest in the children and whatever the exercise intensity in the children and adults. No significant differences were observed between values of root mean square (precision and precision of error) in both groups. Thus we demonstrated that stroke volume and cardiac output values obtained by Doppler echocardiography at rest and during submaximal and maximal exercise were reproducible on test-retest measurements in children and adults.