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Can the use of a single integrated unitary autonomic index provide early clues for eventual eligibility for olympic games?

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Abstract

Purpose

Optimal autonomic regulation and stress resilience might be considered critical elements of athletic performance. We hypothesize that a novel unitary autonomic index for sports (ANSIs), together with a somatic stress related symptom score (4SQ) might help characterize athletes who were eventually selected for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Italian team (Rio +).

Methods

In this retrospective study we examined 778 athletes (age 24.4 ± 6.7 yrs) who underwent a planned yearly pre-participation screening. All athletes underwent clinical, autonomic and exercise ECG evaluation. The combination of vagal and sympathetic indices from RR variability into ANSIs was performed by radar plot and percent ranking of index variables. We assessed (Rio +) versus (Rio −) athletes also after subdivision into three sport intensity groups (low, mid and high intensity).

Results

Overall there were no significant differences between (Rio +) and (Rio −) athletes when considering individual spectral derived variables. Conversely, the unitary Index ANSIs was significantly higher in (Rio +) compared to (Rio −) athletes (respectively 54.5 ± 29.5 and 47.9 ± 28.4 p = 0.014). This difference was particularly evident (p = 0.017) in the group of athletes characterized by both high static and dynamic components. 4SQ was smaller in the (Rio +) group, particularly in the groups of athletes characterized by both low-medium static and dynamic components.

Conclusions

ANSIs, a proxy of integrated cardiac autonomic regulation and simple assessment of resilience to stress, may differentiate Italian athletes who were eventually selected for participation in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games from those who were not, suggesting the possibility of a “winning functional phenotype”.

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Abbreviations

4SQ:

Somatic Stress Related Symptom Score

a.m:

Morning

A.U.:

Arbitrary units

ANS:

Autonomic nervous system

ANSI:

Unitary multivariate percent ranked ANS index

ANSIs:

Unitary autonomic index for sports

AR:

Autoregressive

BMI:

Body mass index

CM5:

ECG chest lead

CONI:

Italian national olympic committee

DC:

Deceleration capacity

e.g.:

For example

ECG:

Electrocardiogram

HF:

High frequency

HRV:

Heart rate variability

J-T:

Jonckheere terpstra

LF:

Low frequency

nu:

Normalized units

PC:

Personal computer

RRV:

RR Interval variability

SD:

Standard deviation

SPSS:

Statistical package for the social sciences

Δ:

Difference

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dana Alon Shiffer (LA, CA, USA) for mother tongue language and English style assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. BIOMETRA University of Milano, Via Alessandro Manzoni, 56, 20089, Rozzano (Milano), Italy

    Daniela Lucini, Roberto Sala, Mara Malacarne & Massimo Pagani

  2. Exercise Medicine Unit, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Rozzano (Milano), Italy

    Daniela Lucini & Mara Malacarne

  3. Sports Medicine Institute CONI Rome, Rome, Italy

    Antonio Spataro, Manuela Benzi & Stefano Tamorri

Authors
  1. Daniela Lucini
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  2. Roberto Sala
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  3. Antonio Spataro
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  4. Mara Malacarne
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  5. Manuela Benzi
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  6. Stefano Tamorri
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  7. Massimo Pagani
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Correspondence to Daniela Lucini.

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Communicated by Keith Phillip George.

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Lucini, D., Sala, R., Spataro, A. et al. Can the use of a single integrated unitary autonomic index provide early clues for eventual eligibility for olympic games?. Eur J Appl Physiol 118, 919–926 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-018-3822-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-018-3822-2

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