[Morphological and functional characteristics of the left ventricle in athletes of various ages, and performing at various levels].

UNLABELLED: One of the most important effects of regular physical training is the adaptation of the cardiovascular system. The basic importance of an "athlete's heart" is manifested in two fields, one is public health, the other competitive sport.

AIM: 1. Can the higher E/A quotient of physically active persons be explained by the training bradycardia, or can it be supposed as an independent effect of regular physical exercise? 2. Which training-induced heart characteristics seem to be different in players of various ball-games? 3. How are cardiac data related to the relative aerobic power as most indicative index of endurance performance?

METHODS

Two-dimensionally guided M-mode and Doppler echocardiographic data of different athletic and non-athletic subjects were compared with each other, differences between data of different athletic groups were also analysed.

RESULTS

1. E/A quotient characterises left ventricular (LV) diastolic function, but it highly depends on the heart rate. The higher E/A found in young athletes does not seem to be an independent effect of the regular physical training. 2. Investigating the data of different ball-game-players, characteristic differences were seen. In the myocardial hypertrophy and in the resting heart rate water polo players were the best, volleyball players the worst, but the values of the latter were also better than those of non-athletes. 3. In the pooled group of non-athletes and of competitors of several kinds of sports (endurance athletes, ball-game-players, power-and-sprint-events athletes) all measured parameters correlated significantly with the relative maximal oxygen consumption.

CONCLUSIONS

1. The higher E/A in elderly subjects suggests that regular physical training can diminish the age-associated impairment of diastolic function. 2. For the high intensity training and for the long competition period a special endurance training program would be useful for volleyball players. 3. The higher was the proportion of endurance activity in the training and competitive program, the stronger were the correlations with the relative aerobic capacity.