Journal
EUROPEAN HEART JOURNAL-CARDIOVASCULAR IMAGING
Volume 16, Issue 4, Pages 353-U161Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/ehjci/jeu323
Keywords
Athlete's heart; Left ventricular hypertrophy; Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy; Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy; Echocardiography; Cardiac magnetic resonance; Coronary cardiac CT; Nuclear cardiology
Funding
- British Heart Foundation [FS/10/62/28409] Funding Source: researchfish
- British Heart Foundation [FS/10/62/28409] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The term 'athlete's heart' refers to a clinical picture characterized by a slow heart rate and enlargement of the heart. A multi-modality imaging approach to the athlete's heart aims to differentiate physiological changes due to intensive training in the athlete's heart from serious cardiac diseases with similar morphological features. Imaging assessment of the athlete's heart should begin with a thorough echocardiographic examination. Left ventricular (LV) wall thickness by echocardiography can contribute to the distinction between athlete's LV hypertrophy and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). LV end-diastolic diameter becomes larger (>55 mm) than the normal limits only in end-stage HCM patients when the LV ejection fraction is <50%. Patients with HCM also show early impairment of LV diastolic function, whereas athletes have normal diastolic function. When echocardiography cannot provide a clear differential diagnosis, cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging should be performed. With CMR, accurate morphological and functional assessment can be made. Tissue characterization by late gadolinium enhancement may show a distinctive, non-ischaemic pattern in HCM and a variety of other myocardial conditions such as idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy or myocarditis. The work-up of athletes with suspected coronary artery disease should start with an exercise ECG. In athletes with inconclusive exercise ECG results, exercise stress echocardiography should be considered. Nuclear cardiology techniques, coronary cardiac tomography (CCT) and/or CMR may be performed in selected cases. Owing to radiation exposure and the young age of most athletes, the use of CCT and nuclear cardiology techniques should be restricted to athletes with unclear stress echocardiography or CMR.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available