The aim of the study was to assess the impact of physical load on left ventricular morphometric parameters and function in child and adolescent athletes.
Material and methods: A total of 143 trained athletes aged 7-17 years and 54 healthy nonathletic children and adolescents aged 8-17 years were involved in this study. The participants were divided into four groups according to the duration of physical activity (training hours per week). Two-dimensional, M-mode, and Doppler echocardiography were used to evaluate cardiac dimensions and function. Absolute parameters and parameters corrected for body surface area were calculated. Left ventricular fractional shortening was calculated as an index of systolic function, and E/A ratio was calculated for evaluation of left ventricular diastolic function.
Results: In 69.9% of athletes, septal and posterior wall thickness, end-diastolic diameter, left ventricular mass, and mass index were statistically significantly higher than in controls. There were no differences in left ventricular end-diastolic diameter and posterior wall thickness corrected for body surface area as well as diastolic E/A ratio between the groups. The fractional shortening in athletes was significantly higher (P<0.01). Interventricular septum thickness, end-diastolic diameter, and left ventricular mass were significantly higher in athletes whose training exceeded 8 hours per week compared to the controls. Left ventricular fractional shortening was significantly higher in athletes training more than 10 hours per week than in controls. Diastolic function index--E/A ratio--did not differ between the groups.
Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that echocardiographic parameters of child and adolescent athletes statistically significantly exceeded the parameters of untrained controls. These parameters were dependent on the anthropometric data and physical activity (the duration of training expressed in hours per week).