TY - JOUR T1 - Global and regional lung function in a population of healthy children before and after exercise challenge JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 44 IS - Suppl 58 SP - P3544 AU - Barbara Vogt AU - Sarah Löhr AU - Zhanqi Zhao AU - Christian Falkenberg AU - Norbert Weiler AU - Inéz Frerichs Y1 - 2014/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P3544.abstract N2 - Introduction: Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is able to determine the spatial distribution of lung ventilation. The aim of our study was to assess the global (by spirometry) and regional lung function (by EIT) in a population of healthy children living on the North Sea island Amrum before and after exercise challenge.Patients and methods: We examined 3 groups of healthy children with no history of lung disease: A) 31 children aged 6-9 yr, B) 39 aged 10-13 yr, C) 21 aged 14-16 yr using EIT in parallel with spirometry at baseline and after stairs running for 5 min. EIT data were collected at 33 scans/s. We determined the regional EIT-derived parameters: FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC and FEF75 in 912 image pixels before and 5 min after exercise. Spatial heterogeneity of ventilation was characterized by the coefficient of variation (CV) calculated from all pixel values of these parameters.Results: The global lung function parameters determined by spirometry at baseline did not significantly differ from the GLI reference values: mean z-scores for FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC, FEF75 were -0.39, -0.59, 0.52, 0.34 (group A); -0.40, -0.17, 0.47, -0.13 (group B); -0.39, 0.13, -0.83, -0.28 (group C). Significant exercise-dependent changes were only found in FVC, FEV1/FVC and FEF75 in the youngest children (group A). CV of regional FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC and FEF75 showed no significant differences within the groups before and after exercise.Conclusion: Healthy children aged 6-9 yr were susceptible to exercise challenge at the global lung level as detected by conventional pulmonary function testing. The spatial ventilation distribution determined by EIT was unaffected by exercise independent of age. ER -