Athlete’s heart: How echocardiography can unveil the heart's hidden secrets in athletes?

Athletes underwent adaptive cardiac processes because of exposure to prolonged and repetitive hemodynamic changes during intense exercise. Physiological hypertrophies mostly do not require therapy and tend to regress by detraining. Meanwhile, pathological hypertrophies cause harmful functional changes and detrimental consequences in mortality and morbidity. Differentiation of physiological and pathological hypertrophy of the heart is important to prevent cardiac events in athletes. Echocardiography helps distinguish abnormal and healthy hypertrophy. Pathological hypertrophy in an athlete's heart causes wall thickness and systolic and diastolic dysfunction, whereas physiological hypertrophy increases wall thickness and normal function. Echocardiography can differentiate between physiological adaptation of the heart and hidden pathological disorders and help to prevent cardiac events in athletes.