Why the study?
Professional training leads to cardiac adaptations known as the athlete's heart, but whether these features also develop in recreational marathon runners remained unknown.
Does amateur marathon training lead to echocardiographic features of "athlete's heart" compared to sedentary controls and general population reference values?
Population
34 males (mean age 40 ± 8 years) before a marathon
Comparison
Amateur runners vs sedentary controls, population reference values, and highly-trained athletes
Design
Cross-sectional comparative study
Authors
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Recreational marathon runners show athlete's heart features on echo; extends observations to amateurs but leaves optimal reference values open.
Does amateur marathon training lead to echocardiographic features of "athlete's heart" compared to sedentary controls and general population reference values?
Amateur marathon runners frequently develop structural cardiac adaptations typical of "athlete's heart", suggesting that reference values for highly-trained athletes should be considered in this population to avoid misdiagnosis.
Lewicka-Potocka et al. (2020) studied this question.
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