Athlete’s heart and prevention of sudden cardiac death in athletes

Abstract

Athlete’s heart is a physiological adaptation to regular exercise. It is characterized by harmonic, eccentric dilatation of all cardiac chambers, typically seen in endurance athletes and athletes who engage in disciplines with high volumes of endurance exercise. In contrast to eccentric hypertrophy of the heart in endurance athletes, which has been demonstrated in echocardiographic and cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) studies, the early hypothesis of concentric hypertrophy in strength athletes has not been confirmed by most of the newer echocardiographic and CMR studies. Because CMR offers high sensitivity and specificity to differentiate between physiological and pathological cardiac adaptations, CMR has become an important tool to examine athlete’s heart and to evaluate athletes’ sports eligibility. Therefore, modern CMR plays an important role in the scientific and clinical assessment of exercise-induced cardiac adaptations and the prevention of sudden cardiac death in athletes.