Three-Dimensional Echocardiographic Characterization of Left Ventricular Remodeling in Olympic Athletes

Patterns of Left Ventricular Longitudinal Strain and Strain Rate in Olympic Athletes

“…We arbitrarily classified athletes into four subgroups in relation to the predominant characteristics of training: (1) skill (i.e., primarily technical activities; n = 55), including table tennis, equestrian sports, rifle shooting, fencing, sailing, and golf; (2) power activities (i.e., primarily isometric activities; n = 30), including weightlifting, wrestling, and short-distance running (100-200 m); (3) mixed disciplines (e.g., disciplines with both isometric and isotonic components; n = 34), including soccer, basketball, volleyball, water polo, and tennis; and (4) endurance disciplines (e.g., primarily isotonic activities; n = 81), including rowing and canoeing, swimming, long-distance running and marathon, cycling, triathlon, and pentathlon. [14][15][16] For comparison, a group of 50 healthy volunteers, of a similar age range (15-40 years; mean, 28 6 6 years) and gender proportion (60% male subjects), was enrolled in this study; they were either completely sedentary or engaged in <3 hours of exercise practice per week, and none was involved in competitions. Untrained controls underwent the same protocol as the athletes.…”

Patterns of Left Ventricular Diastolic Function in Olympic Athletes

“…We classified the athletes' sports disciplines into four subgroups according to the predominant characteristics of exercise training: (1) skill (i.e., primarily technical activities; n = 226), including golf, table tennis, equestrian, gymnastics, shooting, fencing, karate, taekwondo, and sailing; (2) power activities (i.e., primarily isometric activities; n = 177), including weightlifting, wrestling, and short-distance running (100-200 m); (3) mixed disciplines (i.e., disciplines with alternate isometric and isotonic components; n = 339), including soccer, basketball, volleyball, handball, water polo, and tennis; and (4) endurance disciplines (e.g., primarily isotonic activities; n = 403), including rowing, canoeing, swimming, longdistance running and marathon, cycling, triathlon, and pentathlon. [25][26][27][28] The athletes were compared with a group of 154 healthy sedentary subjects. They were volunteers, selected on the basis of similar age (range, 18-40 years) and gender proportion (86 men [56%]) and were either completely sedentary or engaged in <3 hours of exercise per week, and none was involved in sports competitions.…”

Masked hypertension and cardiac remodeling in middle-aged endurance athletes

“…The determination of the left ventricular mass/volume ratio may be imprecise using two-dimensional echocardiography. Three-dimensional techniques have a better reproducibility [34], but were not available Multiple linear regression analysis including masked hypertension (0 ¼ no, 1 ¼ yes), cumulative training hours, and age. Only significant associations are displayed.…”