Key result
Highly trained Cameroonian handball players had significantly greater left ventricular wall thickness, mass, and end-diastolic diameter compared to sedentary controls, with normal ejection fraction.
Why the study?
Does high-level athletic training alter cardiac morphology and function in black African athletes compared to sedentary controls?
Cross-Sectional (n=42)
Does high-level athletic training alter cardiac morphology and function in black African athletes compared to sedentary controls?
Elite black African handball players exhibit increased left ventricular dimensions and wall thickness consistent with physiological cardiac adaptation, without exceeding 12 mm wall thickness or altering resting ejection fraction.
Supports physiological LV remodeling in elite Cameroonian handball players; extends athlete-heart data to black African cohorts but leaves open ethnicity-specific norms and long-term outcomes.
AIMS: Most of the studies of athlete's heart have been performed on Caucasian and yet, evidence suggests that there are racial differences in the response of the heart to certain pathological conditions such as hypertension. This study aimed to evaluate the morphologic cardiac changes in a group of highly trained Cameroonian handball players. METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied cardiac morphology and function as assessed by echocardiography at rest in 21 asymptomatic international level handball players and 21 age-, sex-, height- and weight-matched sedentary controls. Echocardiographic variables were compared between groups using unpaired t-test. Compared with controls, wall thickness, relative wall thickness (h/R), left ventricular (LV) mass, LV end diastolic diameter (LVEDD) and left atrial diameter were significantly greater in athletes. None of the athlete exhibited a wall thickness above 12 mm. The ejection fraction (EF) and the mitral pattern on pulsed wave Doppler did not differ in the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Both LVEDD and wall thickness of elite Cameroonian handball players are increased. There is an increased h/R. The LV EF was normal and not supranormal, as is sometimes believed. These cardiac changes are consistent with cardiac adaptation required in this type of sportsmen who are submitted both in endurance and resistance training.
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Dzudié et al. (2006) conducted a cross-sectional in Athlete's heart (n=42). High-level handball training vs. Sedentary controls was evaluated on Cardiac morphology and function (including wall thickness, LV mass, LVEDD, and ejection fraction). Highly trained Cameroonian handball players had significantly greater left ventricular wall thickness, mass, and end-diastolic diameter compared to sedentary controls, with normal ejection fraction.
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