Abstract
“To go too far is as bad as to fall short.”Confucius (BC 551-BC 479) Chinese philosopher
Echocardiography has contributed most to our current understanding and indeed our current dilemma regarding the heart of the endurance athlete. Echocardiography assesses and characterizes nicely the effects of Endurance exercise training. It allows us to assess both systolic and diastolic cardiac variables as they change with structure and function associated with intense sporting activity. Much research work using echocardiography has characterized the left and right ventricle of the endurance athlete over the last year. Indeed evidence suggests that intense prolonged exercise may result in myocardial dysfunction which predominantly affects the RV, and that chronic RV remodelling may represent a substrate for ventricular arrhythmias in athletes. This has been the source of many debates and articles over the last 12 months. The reasons underlying the predilection towards RV dysfunction with intense prolonged exercise and the variation between individuals in its occurrence are still under dispute. This article seeks to describe the recent literature over the last year which outlines the different areas research has focused on when we assess the heart of the endurance athletes using echocardiography. Ultimately the goal of all research on the heart of the endurance athletes is to search for the holy grail of when enough is enough and therefore recognize and embrace the delicate balance of endurance intensity, in other words the border line when endurance exercise is no longer beneficial but slumps and slides into the realms of induced cardiac pathology.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance
Hill JA, Olson EN. Cardiac plasticity. N Engl J Med. 2008;358(13):1370–80.
•• O Keefe J, Levie C. Run for your life … at a comfortable speed and not too far. Heart doi: 10.1136/heartjnl-2012-302886. This highly controversial manuscript describes the potential detrimental effects of prolonged endurance exercise on the health of athletes.
Barengo NC, Hu G, Lakka TA, Pekkarinen H, Nissinen A, Tuomilehto J. Low physical activity as a predictor for total and cardiovascular disease mortality in middle-aged men and women in Finland. Eur Heart J. 2004;25(24):2204–11.
Lee IM, Skerrett PJ. Physical activity and all-cause mortality: what is the dose–response relation? Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2001;33(6 Suppl):S459–71. discussion S493-454.
Manson JE, Greenland P, LaCroix AZ, Stefanick ML, Mouton CP, Oberman A, et al. Walking compared with vigorous exercise for the prevention of cardiovascular events in women. N Engl J Med. 2002;347(10):716–72.
Sesso HD, Paffenbarger Jr RS, Lee IM. Physical activity and coronary heart disease in men: the Harvard alumni health study. Circulation. 2000;102(9):975–80.
Haskell WL, Lee IM, Pate RR, et al. Physical activity and public health: updated recommendation for adults from the AmericanCollege of Sports Medicine and the American HeartAssociation. Circulation. 2007;116(9):1081–93.
Neilan TG, Tono-Nu TT, Jassal DS, et al. Myocardial adaptation to short-term high-intensity exercise in highly trained athletes. J Am Soc Echocardiogr. 2006;19(10):1280–5.
Poh KK, Tournoux FB, Ton-Nu TT, Picard MH, Wood MJ. Myocardial adaptation and efficiency in response to intensive physical training in elite speedskaters. Int J Cardiol. 2007;126(3):346–51.
King G, Murphy R, Almuntaser I, Bennett K, Ho E, Brown S. Alterations in myocardial stiffness in elite athletes assessed by a new Doppler index. Heart Br Cardiac Soc. 2008;94(10):1323–5.
Neilan TG, Januzzi JL, Lee-Lewandrowski E, et al. Myocardial injury and ventricular dysfunction related to training levels among non elite participants in the Boston marathon. Circulation. 2006;114(22):2325–33.
Baggish AL, Yared K, Wang F, Weiner RB, Hutter Jr AM, Picard MH, et al. The impact of endurance exercise training on left ventricular systolic mechanics. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2008;295(3):H1109–16.
•• Di Paolo FM, Schmied C, Zerguini YA, Junge A, Quattrini F, Culasso F, et al. The athlete's heart in adolescent Africans an electrocardiographic and echocardiographic study. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2012;59(11):1029–36. This study describes unique electrocardiographic and echocardiographic findings in young African athletes.
• Prakkem NHJ, Teske AJ, Cramer MJ, Mosterd A, Bosker AC, Mali WP, et al. Head-to-head comparison between echocardiography and cardiac mri in the evaluation of the athlete' heart. Br J Sports Med. 2012;46(5):348–54. This study compares differences in quantification of left ventricular size and wall thickness in athletes and suggests correction of echocardiographic formulas to allow for better intertechnique evaluation of cardiac function.
Baggish AL, Wang F, Weiner RB, et al. Training-specific changes in cardiac structure and function: a prospective and longitudinal assessment of competitive athletes. J Appl Physiol. 2008;104:1121–8.
Gabrielli L, Enríquez A, Córdova S, Yáñez F, Godoy I, Corbalán R. Assessment of left atrial function in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and athlete's heart: a left atrial myocardial deformation study. Echocardiography. 2012;29(8):943–9.
Middleton N, Shave R, George K, et al. Altered left ventriculardiastolic filling following a marathon is a reproducible phenomenon. Int J Cardiol. 2007;122(1):87–9.
Pelliccia A, Culasso F, Di Paolo FM, Maron BJ. Physiologic leftventricular cavity dilatation in elite athletes. Ann Intern Med. 1999;130(1):23–31.
Pelliccia A, Maron BJ, Di Paolo FM, et al. Prevalence and clinicalsignificance of left atrial remodelling in competitive athletes. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2005;46(4):690–6.
Pelliccia A, Maron BJ, Spataro A, Proschan MA, Spirito P. Theupper limit of physiologic cardiac hypertrophy in highly trainedelite athletes. N Engl J Med. 1991;324(5):295–301.
Pluim BM, Zwinderman AH, van der Laarse A, van der Wall EE. The athlete’s heart: a meta-analysis of cardiac structure and function. Circulation. 2000;101(3):336–44.
Maron BJ, Pelliccia A. The heart of trained athletes: cardiacremodelling and the risks of sports, including sudden death. Circulation. 2006;114(15):1633–44.
Spirito P, Pelliccia A, Proschan MA, et al. Morphology of the” athlete’s heart” assessed by echocardiography in 947 elite athletes representing 27 sports. Am J Cardiol. 1994;74(8):802–6.
Pelliccia A, Maron BJ, De Luca R, Di Paolo FM, Spataro A, Culasso F. Remodelling of left ventricular hypertrophy in elite athletes after long-term deconditioning. Circulation. 2002;105(8):944–9.
Heidbüchel H, Hoogsteen J, Fagard R, et al. High prevalence of right ventricular involvement in endurance athletes with ventricular arrhythmias. Role of an electrophysiologic study in risk stratification. Eur Heart J. 2003;16:1473–80.
King G, Murphy R, Almuntaser I, Clarke J, Brown SG. Reduced right ventricular myocardial strain in the elite athlete may not be a consequence of myocardial damage, “Cream Masquerades as Skimmed Milk”. Echocardiography. 2013. doi:10.1111/echo.12153.
Pelliccia A, Maron BJ, Culasso F, Spataro A, Caselli G. Athlete’s heart in women. Echocardiographic characterization of highly trained elite female athletes. JAMA. 1996;276(3):211–5.
• Rawlins J, Carre F, Kervio G, Papadakis M, Chandra N, Edwards C, et al. Ethnic differences in physiological cardiac adaptation to intense physical exercise in highly trained female athletes. Circulation. 2010;121(9):1078–85. This paper compares echocardiographic and electrocardiographic features and discusses differences between and white female athletes.
Henschen S. Skidlauf und skidwettlauf: eine medizinische sportstudie. Mitt Med Klin Upsala. 1899;2.
Darling EA. The effects of training: a study of the Harvard University crews. Boston Med Surg J. 1899;161:229–33.
Compliance with Ethics Guidelines
Conflict of Interest
Gerard King and Malissa J. Wood declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent
This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This article is part of the Topical Collection on Echocardiography
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
King, G., Wood, M.J. The Heart of the Endurance Athlete Assessed by Echocardiography and Its Modalities: “Embracing the Delicate Balance”. Curr Cardiol Rep 15, 383 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-013-0383-1
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-013-0383-1