Children With Surgically Corrected Acyanotic Congenital Heart Disease (Pediatrics)

The goal of this quasi-experimental pretest-posttest controlled study is to learn whether moderate-intensity treadmill exercise can improve gait kinematics, walking capacity, and motor performance in preschool children aged 48-72 months with surgically corrected acyanotic congenital heart disease.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

Does moderate-intensity treadmill training improve gait kinematics, including stride length, walking speed, and double-stance percentage? Does moderate-intensity treadmill training improve walking capacity and balance in children with surgically corrected acyanotic congenital heart disease?

Researchers compared children with surgically corrected acyanotic congenital heart disease who received treadmill training with age-matched healthy children to see whether the exercise program could reduce gait, balance, and walking-capacity differences between the groups.

Participants with congenital heart disease completed:

Four treadmill walking sessions per week for 10 weeks. Moderate-intensity walking at approximately 70% of maximal heart rate. Pre- and post-intervention assessments of gait kinematics using three-dimensional motion analysis.

Balance assessment using the Pediatric Balance Scale. Walking capacity assessment using the six-minute walk test.