Clinical Observations on Olympic Athletes

Abstract

In the present paper we are concerned with observations on 202 athletes. Our observations were of a purely clinical nature, the X Ray and Electrocardiographic examinations having been undertaken by our colleagues. In view of the shortness of the time available and the desirability of obtaining results on which we could rely, we decided to make our tests as simple as possible, and confined our attention to taking the resting heart rate and blood pressure, ascertaining the position of the maximal cardiac impulse in cases where it was definitely localised, and listening to the heart sounds with the stethoscope. We did not attempt to estimate the size of the heart by percussion. In the present communication we do not propose to refer at all to the question of cardiac enlargement, as this can be determined with greater certainty by radiographic examination: nor shall we refer to the auscultatory phenomena, for it is exceedingly difficult to carry in one’s head a sufficiently reliable standard of comparison, and consequently we do not feel justified in laying much emphasis on the relatively crude impressions gained as the result of a single cursory examination.