Objective: Changes in right ventricular (RV) structure and function following prolonged endurance training in athletes arise due to its unique anatomy and physiology. Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (AC) should be differentiated from electrical, functional and structural adaptation of the heart in response to repetitive intense physical activity due to the negative contribution of exercise on AC progression and arrhythmic risk.
Design: For this review we performed a systematic search of the PubMed database up to October 2017 using terms and keywords pertaining to RV, athlete's heart (AH), AC, sudden cardiac death.
Results: This review summarizes currently available data on the impact of exercise on cardiac structure and function, discusses the debatable hypothesis of exercise-induced RV remodeling, compares the common features and search for distinctive characteristics between AH and AC.
Conclusion: Exercise has a more profound impact on the structure and function of the RV than of the left ventricle. Differentiating physiologic RV remodeling following prolonged endurance exercise from subclinical cardiac pathology can be challenging. A multimodality approach is recommended to differentiate between exercise-induced physiological adaptations and cardiomyopathy.
Keywords: Right ventricle; arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy; athlete’s heart; sudden cardiac death.