Vascular and cardiac remodeling in world class professional cyclists☆,☆☆,★
Section snippets
Study population
This study was a field study: All athletes were studied before the beginning of the “Tour de France” race in July 1995. All 198 professional male cyclists participating in the race (22 teams, 9 athletes per team) agreed to participate in the study. However, because each team could only spend approximately 45 minutes in the echocardiography laboratory, we could evaluate only 149 (75.3%) athletes. A control group of 52 young male physicians working at the Broussais hospital, matched for body
Subject characteristics
Relevant characteristics of the subjects are summarized in Table I.
Values areEmpty Cell Cyclists Control subjects P value No. of subjects 149 52 Age (y) 28.1 ± 3.2 26.3 ± 4.0 .002 Weight (kg) 71.6 ± 6.5 71.0 ± 8.8 .57 Height (cm) 178 ± 6 177 ± 6 .1 Body surface area (m2 ) 1.89 ± 0.12 1.87 ± 0.14 .28 Systolic blood pressure (mm Hg) 120 ± 9 126 ± 13 .0006 Diastolic blood pressure (mm Hg) 66 ± 8 77 ± 10 <.0001 Heart rate (beats/min) 52 ± 8 71 ± 13 <.0001
Discussion
Intense training modifies cardiovascular geometry. In this report comparing world class cyclists with normal subjects, we confirm that intense training increases LV mass, and we show that vascular geometry is also modified, although to a lesser extent.
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Cited by (33)
Impact of endurance exercise on the heart of cyclists: A systematic review and meta-analysis
2020, Progress in Cardiovascular DiseasesInfluence of exercise training mode on arterial diameter: A systematic review and meta-analysis
2016, Journal of Science and Medicine in SportCitation Excerpt :Chronic vascular remodelling, including changes in arterial wall thickness,1 diameter2 and wall-to-lumen ratio,3 in response to exercise training has been widely debated. Whilst the majority of research supports differences in arterial diameter in athletes compared to sedentary or recreationally active controls,1–9 it remains unclear whether the mode of exercise training (endurance, resistance or mixed) plays a role in these differences. This may be due, in part, to the examination of different arteries and the wide range of sports studied.
Cardiac magnetic resonance assessment of left and right ventricular morphologic and functional adaptations in professional soccer players
2010, American Heart JournalCitation Excerpt :The balanced increase in LVEDV (21.6%) and RVEDV (21.3%) found in our study contrasts with CMRI investigations in triathletes performed by Petersen et al,10 showing an unbalanced biventricular hypertrophy, favoring the LV, and agrees with results from Scharhag et al.23 Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging studies investigating athletes undergoing sustained power or anaerobic power training (eg, sprinters) suggest that the effect of exercise training on the RV chamber size may be more pronounced than the effect on the LV chamber size.30 In contrast to echocardiographic studies in endurance athletes (144 ± 22.0 g/m2)31 and soccer players (132.4 ± 23.7 g/m2),32 none of the soccer players in our investigation (81.0 ± 8.6 g/m2) had a LVMM above the clinical limit at CMRI (113 g/m2). Partly, the wide discrepancy in LVMM is probably due to different methods of image analysis (inclusion or exclusion of papillary muscles) and the technical difficulty in analyzing ventricular volume and mass with echocardiography.
The effects of endurance and recreational exercise on subclinical evidence of atherosclerosis in young adults
2010, American Journal of the Medical SciencesCitation Excerpt :The literature provides contradictory data on this topic. Some studies show that physical activity does reduce the maximal and average carotid IMT values by 14% to 45%, whereas other published data fails to provide such evidence.13–15,17,18 In summary, it is very likely that physical activity has an influence on the IMT, although no subanalysis of the value and impact of exercise type was performed in the above-mentioned studies.
Echocardiographic characteristics of professional tennis players at the Roland Garros French open
2007, American Heart JournalCitation Excerpt :We also found that atrial dilation is related to playing style because it was significant in baseline players but not in offensive players. Left ventricular hypertrophy is the most common change induced by intensive sport.1,2,4 However, the limit between physiological and pathologic hypertrophy may sometimes be difficult to distinguish.20
Serial left ventricular adaptations in world-class professional cyclists: Implications for disease screening and follow-up
2004, Journal of the American College of Cardiology
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From Centre de Médecine Préventive Cardio-vasculaire, Service d’Informatique Médicale, Institut Cœur Effort Santé, Service de cardiologie, Hôpital Broussais.
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Reprint requests: Eric Abergel, MD, Centre de Médecine Préventive Cardio-vasculaire (Med 9), Hôpital Broussais, 96 rue Didot 75674 Paris CEDEX 14, France.
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