Markers of cardiac overload and its remodeling in athletes representing different sports

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the modern features of the «athlete’s heart» in professional football and basketball players. Materials and methods: crosssectional study of morphological and electrocardiographic features of cardiac muscle in elite athletes - football (N=45) and basketball (N=20) players was performed. The resting ECG and echocardiography were provided. Results: the age of athletes was positively correlated with progressive thickening of ventricular myocardium (r=0.29, p=0.021 for LV and r=0.48, p<0.001 for RV), RV (r=0.46, p<0.001) and LA dilation (r=0.32, p=0.01); these changes were more significant in footballers compared to basketball players. Matching of morphological and electrocardiographic data contributes to a hypothesis of disproportion between anatomic and electric cardiac remodeling in athletes. Intraventricular conduction disturbances were more common in football players (42% vs. 15%, p<0.05). Conclusions: anatomic cardiac remodeling in footballers is more significant than in basketball players, unlike electric remodeling. Electric cardiac remodeling which can manifest with cardiac rhythm or conductivity abnormalities, appears regardless of age and signs of anatomic cardiac remodeling. In some cases these abnormalities coexist with structurally intact myocardium.