SUMMARY Cardiac dimensions and left ventricular function were investigated at rest with non-invasive methods in 14 professional road race cyclists and in 11 age-matched sedentary control subjects.The electrocardiographic findings were in agreement with previous studies in endurance athletes and the vectocardiographic data showed anterior displacement of the electrical forces.Echocardiographic dimensions at end-diastole showed higher values in the cyclists for left ventricular internal diameter, left ventricular posterior wall thickness, and interventricular septal thickness. Derived values for left ventricular volume and left ventricular mass were also much larger in the cyclists and there was excellent agreement between total heart volume measured with radiology and total left ventricular volume measured by echocardiography.There was a significant correlation between maximal oxygen consumption and end-diastolic left ventricular diameter.The term "athlete's heart" is used to describe a variety of alterations in the cardiac function of athletes engaged in vigorous competitive sports. These anomalies include bradycardia, often associated with intermittent tachyarrhythmias, repolarisation abnormalities, systolic murmurs, gallop rhythm, and ventricular hypertrophy.Previous studies suggested that the response of the heart to "endurance" sports was ventricular enlargement without thickening of the wall, whereas the response to "resistance" or "isometric" sports was thickening of the ventricular wall without an increase in size. ' Recently, however, other investigators found both an enlarged ventricular cavity and an increased wall thickness in endurance athletes such as long distance runners.2'The controversy may be partly explained by differences in the type of sport and in the performance level of the athletes under study, and by differences in the habitual activity and exercise performance of the control subjects.To get a better insight into the "athlete's heart" more data are needed on top class athletes specifically engaged in "endurance" or "resistance" sports.The purpose of the present study was to investigate the cardiac dimensions and left ventricular
We were very interested by the article of Pyörálá et al. (Electrocardiographic changes during Gastroscopy, Endoscopy 5 [1973] 186.Since we have recently completed a similar study we would like to comment on several points and briefly report our results.Continuous electrocardiographic recording on tape (Holter system 3) was performed in 52 patients undergoing a gastro-duodenoscopy. The procedure was always performed by the same investigator with a fiberscope (panendoscope ACMI). None of the patients Downloaded by: Chinese University of Hong Kong. Copyrighted material.
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