What is athlete ’s heart?

Athlete’s heart denotes structural, functional, and electrical remodeling seen in trained athletes. It is a physiological adaptation helping athletes perform physical tasks better than non-athletes. Though most of the findings in athlete’s heart are related to the left ventricle, changes do occur in the right ventricle as well. During aerobic exercise which is isotonic, the heart rate and stroke volume increases. Systemic vascular resistance falls, but slight to moderate increase in blood pressure can occur due to the increased cardiac output. As the cardiac output increases, it is a mostly a volume overload situation and left ventricle can develop eccentric hypertrophy with enlargement of cavity and proportionate increase in wall thickness. Isometric exercise or weight training on the other hand causes only slight increase in cardiac output due to increase in heart rate. But there is significant rise in blood pressure leading to pressure overload to the left ventricle. This causes concentric left ventricular hypertrophy in which increase in wall thickness predominates, without much increase in cavity size. These cardiac adaptations tend to normalize left ventricular wall stress. A study evaluating 947 elite, highly trained athletes has reported echocardiographic left ventricular dimensions. Highest left ventricular wall thickness noted was 16 mm. Wall thickness of 13 mm or more were noted in only 16 of the 947 athletes. All these persons had increased left ventricular en...
Source: Cardiophile MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: General Cardiology Source Type: blogs