Demonstrating responsiveness of the pediatric cardiac quality of life inventory in children and adolescents undergoing arrhythmia ablation, heart transplantation, and valve surgery

Pediatric Cardiac Quality of Life Inventory (PCQLI) is a disease-specific pediatric cardiac health-related quality of life (HRQOL) instrument that is reliable, valid, and generalizable. We aim to demonstrate PCQLI responsiveness in children undergoing arrhythmia ablation, heart transplantation, and valve surgery before and after cardiac intervention.

Pediatric cardiac patients 8–18 years of age from 11 centers undergoing arrhythmia ablation, heart transplantation, or valve surgery were enrolled. Patient and parent-proxy PCQLI Total, Disease Impact and Psychosocial Impact subscale scores were assessed pre- and 3–12 months follow-up. Patient clinical status was assessed by a clinician post-procedure and dichotomized into markedly improved/improved and no change/worse/much worse. Paired t-tests examined change over time.

We included 195 patient/parent-proxies: 12.6 ± 3.0 years of age; median follow-up time 6.7 (IQR = 5.3–8.2) months; procedural groups − 79 (41%) ablation, 28 (14%) heart transplantation, 88 (45%) valve surgery; clinical status − 164 (84%) markedly improved/improved, 31 (16%) no change/worse/much worse. PCQLI patient and parent-proxies Total scores increased (p ≤ 0.013) in each intervention group. All PCQLI scores were higher (p < 0.001) in the markedly improved/improved group and there were no clinically significant differences in the PCQLI scores in the no difference/worse/much worse group.

The PCQLI is responsive in the pediatric cardiac population. Patients with improved clinical status and their parent-proxies reported increased HRQOL after the procedure. Patients with no improvement in clinical status and their parent-proxies reported no change in HRQOL. PCQLI may be used as a patient-reported outcome measure for longitudinal follow-up and interventional trials to assess HRQOL impact from patient and parent-proxy perspectives.