LAUSR

Introduction: Delayed early oxygen uptake (VO2) recovery reflects disease severity in chronic lung or heart disease, linked to delayed recovery of muscle energy stores. No previous studies have investigated this in children born very preterm where altered lung structure may impair recovery Hypothesis: Children born preterm have a delayed early VO2 recovery associated with worse neonatal lung disease. Methods: Children born very preterm ( Results: 61 preterm children (27 with bronchopulmonary dysplasia) and 28 controls were assessed. There were no differences in peak VO2 of preterm compared with term children (46.4±, 6.8 vs 47.7 ±5. mL.min−1.kg−1), nor between VO2 recovery at 1 min (85 ±, 0.1 vs 86 ±, 0.1%), 2min (22.8 ± 0.07 vs 24.5 ± 0.06%) or 5min (16.5 ±0.04 vs 18.8 ± 0.07%). Time to 50% peak VO2 was similar between preterm and term children (51.0± 11.9 vs 51.8 ± 12.8s). There were no associations between VO2 recovery and GA or O2 use in the neonatal period. Conclusion: Children born preterm have normal early oxygen uptake recovery following a maximal exercise test. This is consistent with the well preserved aerobic capacity observed in this group.