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Endurance training fails to cause long-term damage to right ventricle
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Years of elite endurance training does not appear to lead to long-term right ventricular damage, researchers reported in Circulation.
Philipp Bohm, MD , of the Cardiology Center at the University Hospital Zürich, and colleagues evaluated exercise-induced right ventricle cardiac damage in 33 white elite male endurance athletes (training history 10 years and 10 hours/week) and a control group of 33 white men of similar age, height and weight who exercise 3 hours per week or less. All participants were aged 30 to 60 years. Each individual underwent a cardiopulmonary exercise test, echocardiography and CV magnetic resonance (CMR).
According to the results, left ventricular mass (188 g 124 g; P < .001) and right ventricular (RV) mass (70 g vs. 49 g; P < .001) were increased in the athletes compared with the control group. The two groups also showed similar differences in indexed LV mass and RV mass at end-diastole, and in ratio of LV mass to RV mass.
Data also revealed that both LV end-diastolic volume (203 mL vs. 139 mL; P < .001) and RV end-diastolic volume (215 mL vs. 133 mL; P < .001) were greater in the athletes than the control group. In addition, in the athletes, only the RV end-diastolic volume was greater than the LV end-diastolic volume (215 mL vs. 203 mL; P < .05).
According to CMR, no differences in LV ejection fraction (57 59%; P = .19) or RV ejection fraction (52% vs. 54%; P = .26) were found between the groups, and none of the athletes showed a decrease in RV longitudinal strain.
Late enhancement was detected in one athlete; none of the other athletes or men in the control group had structural myocardial alterations that would indicate possible interstitial fibrosis or scarring.
“Our findings of a significantly greater RV than LV volume in the athlete group did not apply to the control group, underlining that greater RV loading may be matched by greater RV remodeling,” Bohm and colleagues wrote. “However, according to our results, this should not be interpreted as a sign of pathology because functional RV parameters by CMR and echocardiography were within the normal range and did not differ significantly from the control [group].”
The investigators wrote more research is needed to better understand the “cause-effect and dose-response relationships between endurance exercise and [CV] events.” – by Tracey Romero
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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