Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography
Clinical InvestigationLeft Ventricular MechanicsLeft Ventricular Myocardial Velocities and Deformation Indexes in Top-Level Athletes
Section snippets
Study Population
From June 2007 to April 2009, 650 consecutive highly trained athletes were referred to the Sports Medicine Ambulatory Service of Monaldi Hospital (Naples, Italy) for cardiovascular preparticipation screening18 and afterward to our echocardiographic laboratory for the purpose of the present study. All subjects underwent detailed histories, physical examinations, electrocardiography, chest radiography, and comprehensive transthoracic echocardiography, including standard Doppler, pulsed-wave
Clinical Characteristics of the Study Population
Mean age was comparable between the two groups. In accordance with the effects of different training protocols, ATP at rest showed higher heart rates, body surface areas, and systolic blood pressures than ATE (Table 1).
M-Mode and B-Mode Measurements
ATP showed increased sum of wall thicknesses (septum + LV posterior wall), LV relative wall thickness, and ESSc, while LV end-diastolic volume was greater in ATE. LV mass index and LV ejection fraction did not significantly differ between the two groups, while left atrial volume
Discussion
Cardiac adaptations due to high-level training can vary in accordance with the type of sport. In particular, isotonic exercise associated with endurance sports is responsible for a chronic volume overload, with a predominant increase in LV mass and end-diastolic diameters (eccentric hypertrophy). On the other hand, isometric exercise, typical of strength disciplines, induces a prevalent increase in LV mass and wall thickness (concentric hypertrophy). However, athletes involved in high-level
Conclusions
This study provides the full spectrum of systolic and diastolic myocardial velocities and deformation indexes obtained by pulsed-wave tissue Doppler and 2DSE analyses in a large population of competitive athletes practicing different sports. The majority of athletes had Em ≥ 16 cm/s, Sm ≥ 10 cm/s, and GLS < −16%. In particular, LV early diastolic myocardial function appears to be positively influenced by preload increase, while increased LV wall thickness seems to induce an enhancement of
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