Why the study?
Athletes of African or Afro-Caribbean origin often show cardiac adaptations that overlap with diseases implicated in sudden cardiac death, risking erroneous interpretation with potentially serious consequences.
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Design
Review
May inform ethnicity-aware athlete screening; hypothesis-generating for validated criteria by ancestry.
Regular intensive exercise is associated with a plethora of electrical, structural and functional adaptations within the heart to promote a prolonged and sustained increase in cardiac output. Bradycardia, increased cardiac dimensions, enhanced ventricular filling, augmentation of stroke volume and high peak oxygen consumption are recognised features of the athlete's heart. The type and magnitude of these adaptations to physical exercise are governed by age, sex, ethnicity, sporting discipline and intensity of sport. Some athletes, particularly those of African or Afro-Caribbean (black) origin reveal changes that overlap with diseases implicated in sudden cardiac death. In such instances, erroneous interpretation has potentially serious consequences ranging from unfair disqualification to false reassurance. This article focuses on ethnic variation in the physiological cardiac adaption to exercise.
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Ozo et al. (2020) studied this question.
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