Morphological and functional changes in athletes' hearts during the competitive season

This research aims to determine the cardiac morphological and functional changes that occur during the competitive season in elite athletes with previously-induced adaptive changes. Two echocardiographic examinations were performed in each player of a senior professional football team, the first at the beginning of the training phase and the other at the peak of the competitive season. It was demonstrated that after the brief period of deconditioning during the holiday period, further changes took place, even in these athletes with several years of prior professional activity. There was a significant increase between the two assessments in left ventricular wall thickness and mass, and in left atrial diameter, but left ventricular diastolic diameter and the diastolic function parameters considered remained the same. Greater left ventricular wall hypertrophy was related to more competitive playing time in these players. The main limitation of the study is the small number of athletes studied. (C) 2012 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.