Assessment of Cardiorespiratory Fitness Using the PACER in Patients With Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and Familial Mediterranean Fever

Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) and Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) are the most common autoimmune and autoinflammatory rheumatic diseases in childhood. Symptoms such as reduced muscle strength, joint pain, fatigue, and limited activity, which are common in childhood rheumatic diseases, often lead to impaired physical function. Cardiorespiratory fitness, which is an important indicator of physical function, plays a critical role in health-related outcomes in children and adolescents with rheumatic disease. Maximum oxygen consumption (VO2 peak) is considered the fundamental criterion for evaluating cardiorespiratory fitness. The need for extensive equipment and trained personnel, accompanied with the inability to assess large numbers of children at one-time makes the objective assessment of cardiorespiratory fitness in a clinic setting unmanageable. Therefore, there is a need to assess their cardiorespiratory fitness utilizing an easily administered test that has minimal measurement errors in patients with JIA and FMF. The Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) has become a routine cardiorespiratory fitness assessment for predicting VO2peak in children. A review of the literature revealed that no studies have evaluated CRF using PACER in childhood rheumatic diseases. The aim of this study was to compare the Fitnessgram VO2 max values of children and adolescents diagnosed with JIA and FMF with those of their healthy peers and to examine the relationship with body composition.