The athlete's heart syndrome.

The athlete's heart is a benign condition, associated with physiologic alterations that can be detected on physical and laboratory examination. Echocardiography is a particularly useful technique is quantitating cardiac adaptation to exercise training and in screening for cardiovascular disorders that can be deleterious to the athlete. Cardiomyopathies are common causes of sudden death in young athletes, and myocarditis in physically-active young military recruits. Coronary disease is usually implicated in middle-aged athletes such as distance runners. Recent well-publicized deaths in several athletes have focused more attention on the need to detect Marfan's syndrome and cocaine use. Published guidelines such as the 16th Bethesda Conference and recent medical advances like new antihypertensive and antiarrhythmic drugs assist the clinician in counseling and managing athletes with cardiovascular disorders.