Bicuspid aortic valve in competitive athletes

Abstract

BAV is a relatively common congenital cardiac disease in athletes and commonly asymptomatic for a long time. This study suggests the usefulness of evaluating young athletes using echocardiography at least once when they start their sporting activity.

Effects of sports activity in athletes with bicuspid aortic valve and mild aortic regurgitation

“…All of them underwent the same clinical evaluation: standard 12 ECG, exercise test to exhaustion on a treadmill or a cycle ergometer and two-dimensional colour Doppler echocardiograms. All the athletes were identified during the preparticipation screening protocol (PPS) at our Sport Medicine Centre 2. They were evaluated at yearly intervals, and for 30 of them, we obtained a complete 5-year record.…”

“…BAV has an incidence of 0.9% to 2% in the general population1 or in competitive athletes,2 with strong prevalence among men 2 3. It can be associated with aortic abnormalities, including aortic dilatation,4 5 coartaction 6 and acute dissection 7.…”

Structural cardiac disease diagnosed by echocardiography in asymptomatic young male soccer players: implications for pre-participation screening

“…Echocardiography is a non-invasive, readily available and relatively inexpensive diagnostic tool with the ability to detect subclinical abnormalities early in their natural history 10. Indeed, the implementation of PPS with echocardiography has been considered by several authors 11–14. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the usefulness of implementing standard PPS with echocardiography to detect structural cardiac abnormalities in a large population of trained asymptomatic, apparently healthy children and adolescents.…”

Cardiac Indexes in Young Subjects With and Without Bicuspid Aortic Valve

“…BAV has been demonstrated to infl uence aortic root dimensions in athletes ( 18 ), but the impact of moderate physical activity on cardiac and aortic structure in patients with BAV is less clear ( 2 , 4 ). The natural history in aviators has only been described in a small cohort ( 1 ).…”