Non-invasive evaluation of cardiac function in professional cyclists.

Abstract

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

Functional and Metabolic Evaluation of the Athlete’s Heart By Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Dobutamine Stress Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

“…We could not confirm the findings of Nishimura at al, 9 who found significantly depressed resting systolic LV function in 40-to 49-year-old cyclists, or the findings of Miki et al, 10 who demonstrated a decreased ratio of early to atrial filling velocities in 40-to 60-year-old cyclists. Our findings are, however, in agreement with other previous Doppler echocardiographic studies in cylists [47][48][49][50] and other athletes 43,49,[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58] that demonstrated normal or enhanced LV function parameters. To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to use MRI in the assessment of LV systolic and diastolic function in the athlete's heart.…”

Athlete's Heart and Cardiovascular Care of the Athlete

“…Numerous investigators have examined resting LV systolic function in athletes using cross-sectional, sedentary control study designs. [37][38][39][40] These studies and a large meta-analysis show that LV ejection fraction is generally normal among athletes, 41 although at least 1 study of 147 cyclists participating in the Tour de France found that 17 (11%) had a calculated LV ejection fraction Յ52%. 42 Such results suggest that healthy endurance athletes may occasionally demonstrate borderline or mildly reduced LV ejection fractions at rest.…”

Heart rate variability in soccer players with mitral valve prolapse or benign arrhythmia

“…Accordingly, previous investigations have supported that aerobic exercise training programs lead to increased HRV at rest, as a result mainly of enhanced vagal tone [4,23]. Indeed, it has been demonstrated that endurance athletes reach higher values of HRV index and present the lowest 24-h resting HR in comparison with anaerobically or powered-trained athletes and sedentary subjects [3,6,24]. Nevertheless, other reports failed to demonstrate such an evident increase in HRV indices in athletes, while conflicted results among athletes participating in various sport disciplines have been presented [25][26][27].…”