Key result
Elite winter sport disciplines are linked to distinct patterns of functional and morphological cardiac remodeling.
Why the study?
The study evaluated pronounced echocardiographic physiological cardiac remodeling across different elite winter sports disciplines.
Does the type of elite winter sport influence the extent and pattern of echocardiographic cardiac remodeling?
Cross-Sectional (n=32)
Yes
Does the type of elite winter sport influence the extent and pattern of echocardiographic cardiac remodeling?
p-value: p=0.0003
Elite winter sport professionals demonstrate discipline-specific physiological cardiac remodeling that can be identified via structural measures and speckle tracking echocardiography.
Discipline-specific remodeling patterns on echocardiography in elite winter athletes should not yet change practice; leaves open longitudinal outcome studies.
Twelve world elite Biathlon (Bia), ten Nordic Cross Country (NCC) and ten ski-mountaineering (Ski-Mo) athletes were evaluated for pronounced echocardiographic physiological cardiac remodeling as a primary aim of our descriptive preliminary report. In this context, sports-related cardiac remodeling was analyzed by performing two-dimensional echocardiography including speckle tracking analysis as left ventricular global longitudinal strain (LV-GLS). A multicenter retrospective analysis of echocardiographic data was performed in 32 elite world winter sports athletes, which were obtained between 2020 and 2021 during the annual medical examination. The matched data of the elite world winter sports athletes (14 women, 18 male athletes, age: 18–35 years) were compared for different echocardiographic parameters. Significant differences could be revealed for left ventricular systolic function (LV-EF, p = 0.0001), left ventricular mass index (LV Mass index, p = 0.0078), left atrial remodeling by left atrial volume index (LAVI, p = 0.0052), and LV-GLS (p = 0.0003) between the three professional winter sports disciplines. This report provides new evidence that resting measures of cardiac structure and function in elite winter sport professionals can identify sport specific remodeling of the left heart, against the background of training schedule and training frequency.
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Zimmermann et al. (2021) conducted a cross-sectional in Athlete's heart / sports-related cardiac remodeling (n=32). Elite winter sports training (Biathlon, Nordic Cross Country, Ski-Mountaineering) vs. Comparison between the three sport disciplines was evaluated on Differences in echocardiographic markers of cardiac remodeling (LV-EF, LV Mass index, LAVI, and LV-GLS) (p=0.0003). Different elite winter sport disciplines were associated with significant differences in functional and morphological cardiac remodeling, including left ventricular global longitudinal strain (p=0.0003).
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