New horizons in non-invasive paediatric exercise methodology

With the greater participation by children in competitive sports and the increased interest in the effects of maturation on the physiology of the child, a deeper understanding of paediatric exercise performance is needed in both domains. This, however, has been restricted by the ethical constraints relating to invasive testing in children. Hence, from both an ethical and methodological paediatric perspective there is an increasing need to accommodate alternative non-invasive physiological assessment measures. Only by doing this will our current state of knowledge in paediatric exercise physiology be enhanced. The objective of this mini-symposium is to introduce to paediatric practitioners three techniques that could help to expand current paediatric exercise methodologies. Specifically, we plan to focus upon three areas: 1) the technique of Doppler echocardiography during exercise and it's possible applications to examine central limitations to performance 2) venous occlusion plethysmography and it's use in examining peripheral limitations to exercise performance and 3) the role of magnetic resonance spectroscopy in isolating muscle biochemical determinants of performance. The opportunity to highlight techniques to practitioners in paediatrics should act to stimulate research ideas within these domains.