Sports-Specific Adaptation of Left Ventricular Muscle Mass in Athlete's Heart

Abstract

Regarding the influence of the left ventricular (LV) adaptation by sports-specific factors the supposed endurance training have so far been compared mainly to strength conditioning. In the present study we investigated the echocardiographic LV measurements of endurance-trained athletes in different kinds of endurance sports (running and ball games) by using matched-pair procedures. We examined 22 male soccer players (S) and 22 male 400-m runners (R) on a regional up to a national level with--each similar in pairs--the following body mass (S: 75.7 +/-5.0 kg; R: 75.2 +/- 5.6), body surface area (S: 1.97 +/- 0.09 m2; R: 1.98 +/- 0.09), fat-free body mass (S: 68.4 +/- 4.6 kg; R: 68.3 +/- 5.3) and individual anaerobic threshold as a criterion to determine the running endurance (S: 14.23 +/- 0.79 km.h-1; R: 14.25 +/- 0.80). The body dimensions-related heart volume (HV/lean body mass: S: 14.2 +/- 1.5 ml.kg-1; R: 13.4 +/- 1.0) as well as the absolute and body surface-related LV internal diameter (EDD: S: 55.0 +/- 3.8 mm; R: 52.7 +/- 3.3; EDD/body-surface area: S: 27.8 +/- 1.9 mm.m-2; R: 26.6 +/- 1.3) were measured significantly higher in S as compared to R (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01, respectively). In both groups, free LV wall thickness, enddiastolic diameter and LV muscle mass correlated significantly with the body dimensions (fat-free body mass: r = 0.42 - 0.48 - 0.56; p < 0.004, respectively). In conclusion, specific sport-related strain like frequent exercises in interval form (typical for ball games) and a different volume/intensity ratio could significantly influence the LV adaptation beside the endurance performance as well as constitutional and genetic factors.

Sports-Specific Features of Athlete’s Heart and their Relation to Echocardiographic Parameters

“…In accordance with recent data (reviews in [24,31,65,87]), it actually appears that most of highly trained athletes develop an LV fair combination of cavity dilatation and increased wall thickness. However, ventricular dilatation slightly predominates in endurance athletes, whereas the increased wall thickness slightly predominates in static ones [83].…”

“…The two different classic morphological forms of athlete's heart, strength-trained and endurance-trained, previously proposed [49] are not really confirmed [24,31,65,87]. The two different classic morphological forms of athlete's heart, strength-trained and endurance-trained, previously proposed [49] are not really confirmed [24,31,65,87].…”

“…However, some clinical and experimental studies argue for the development of a concentric cardiac hypertrophy with altered diastolic function in case of anabolic steroid or growth hormone use [9,31,87] and of an eccentric cardiac hypertrophy in case of erythropoietin use [1]. However, some clinical and experimental studies argue for the development of a concentric cardiac hypertrophy with altered diastolic function in case of anabolic steroid or growth hormone use [9,31,87] and of an eccentric cardiac hypertrophy in case of erythropoietin use [1].…”

“…Moreover, no significant difference in LV diameter has been reported between strength athletes and heavy controls [24, 40a, 78]. Concerning LV wall thickness, the clearly increased absolute values reported in comparison with untrained subjects [40a, 71, 78] disappeared after indexation by body surface area [24,65,87]. Concerning LV wall thickness, the clearly increased absolute values reported in comparison with untrained subjects [40a, 71, 78] disappeared after indexation by body surface area [24,65,87].…”

“…6 © Urban & Vogel cardial functions are not significantly altered. However, the sports-specific adaptive cardiac structural changes are actually somewhat controversial [25,60,65,80,87]. Morganroth et al were the first to postulate that two different morphological forms, strength-trained and endurance-trained, of athlete's heart can be distinguished [49].…”