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Exercise induced hypoxia in my daughter who plays soccer

My daughter 13 yrs old has severe chest pains and is out of breath when running very short distances and has oxygen levels in the low 70's. She plays premiere soccer and wants to play in college and this is really hard on her. I am not sure where I can post this. My daughter was treated for asthma for years then we tested her lungs and they said no asthma. She then had a heart catherization and they said her heart is in great shape. When she exercises her oxygen levels go from 98 to the low 70's and when she stops exercising it goes back to the high 90's. She has severe chest pains and is very out of breath. What doctor should I go to? I have crossed off the list a pulmonologist and cardiologist. If anyone out there has any ideas I would appreciate it.
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Avatar universal
My 16 year own son has the exact same symptoms and we have down the same tests, yet have come up with no answers.  I would love to know if you ever figured out the cause of her problems.  Please let me know.  Hopefully you have been able to get her issues resolved.
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Avatar universal
Asked pulm if we tested DLCO level he said yes it was normal. He is posting her an international website so maybe another pulm might have a clue. We did the blood work but everything was with in the normal range..She loves meat unlike her older sister who is a vegetarian.
thanks,
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746512 tn?1388807580
Hmmmmm well it DEFINETLY isn't asthma so that should be a relief ....

something in her body isn't allow transfer oxygen at a higher demand than resting.  I would try a hematologist that could look more on her blood, its structure, function and how it transfers oxygen.  I'm assuming you went through tons of blood work and all the hemocrit, iron levels, MHCH is all normal.

There also are some vitamins like B12 and folate that can cause anemia and increase blood cells that don't function that great.  This is especially important if she is a vegetarian and even more important if she's a vegan.  Both iron and B12 are important and hard to get enough of unless one is eating meat and animal products.
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Avatar universal
Oh no symptoms after running only during- She also has started having headaches which is listed as a sympton of low ox levels!
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Avatar universal
I bought a pulse ox portable finger tester-If I just test her when she is sitting it is usually 97 or 98 but sometimes it has been in the low to mid 90's. We did do the test that they said will actually induce the asthma and it would never induce.  We also did the test where she breaths on the machine, runs breaths on the machine runs and lung capacity never diminished but ox levels dropped through out.  I will check if it included the dlco I am trying to get copies of all the results.
thanks,
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746512 tn?1388807580
hmmmmmm that is very odd .... what test or how do you know that her oxygen stat goes down to 70s while she is playing soccer?  Are you just using a portable pulse-ox machine?

So only while she is running does the O2 stats go down .... does she ever have symptoms 5-10 minutes after exercising? or only during the action of running?

Exercise induced asthma (will not always show up on the methacholine challenge test - which I'm assuming is the test she has), the best test for it is to do a similar test that tries to provocate the symptoms but instead of inhaling something, she runs on the treadmill and they measure her lung function during, immediately after and up to 20 minutes later to see if there is any difference.  

I'm also assuming that during the heart stress tests she also showed the symptoms of lower oxygen saturation.  

I would also look to see if the pulmonary function tests she had included something called a DLCO, it measures how well oxygen is transferred from her lungs to her blood.

Hopefully that helps a bit .... she defintely is an odd case

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Avatar universal
She has had 2 stress test while running on a treadmill and her chest will hurt but the electrodes say her heart is fine. She also had a pulmonary function test performed that was suppose to induce asthma and it never induced it- She has had a heart catherization which examined all of her heart and the connections.
Helpful - 0
746512 tn?1388807580
Has she had an exercise pulmonary test or heart stress test?  Exercise induced asthma may not show up on the regular pulmonary function tests because it is not being triggered.  

The other possibility is that exercise is too stressful on her heart due to some factor (don't know a lot about heart problems).

I would get the doctor to order an exercise test that has your daughter run on the treadmill or bike while her pulse ox, heart rate and pulmonary function are measured.  This should be a hint to what is happening.

Good luck
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1 Comments
My daughter has same symptoms. She uses albuterol and feels so much better.  I can't explain it but it works for her.
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