Monitoring Cardiovascular, Hepatic, Renal, And Hematological Markers Of Health In Collegiate Soccer Players

Abstract

Clinical biomarkers of general health status may indicate health impacts of overtraining in athletes attempting to optimize performance using long-term tracking tools. PURPOSE: To test the hypothesis that biomarkers of cardiovascular, liver, kidney and hematological function reflect athlete health and performance over the course of a collegiate soccer season. METHODS: 20 NCAA Division I male soccer players (mean±SD; height, 181±6cm; body mass, 77.9±6.2kg; BF%, 11.9±2.4%; VO2max, 52.9±6.1 mL[BULLET OPERATOR]kg[BULLET OPERATOR]min-1) provided blood samples for a test panel of 53 biomarkers at 5 time points: before preseason (PS), week 1 (W1), week 4 (W4), week 8 (W8), and week 12 (W12). Significant changes were assessed via repeated measures ANOVA and post hoc testing (p≤0.05). RESULTS: Markers of potential organ damage markers aspartate amino transferase (AST) (U[BULLET OPERATOR]L-1) and creatinine (mg[BULLET OPERATOR]dL-1) were elevated at W1 (AST, creatinine; 29±11, 1.11±0.13), W8 (31±11, 1.11±0.11), and W12 (28±11, 1.15±0.13) vs. PS (18±4, 1.02±0.13, all p<0.05). Alanine amino transferase (ALT) (U[BULLET OPERATOR]L-1) levels were also significantly higher at W8 (24±8) and W12 (24±9) vs. PS (18±5, both p<0.05). Hematocrit (%) measures were significantly reduced at W1 (45.5±2.3, p=0.015) vs. PS (47.2±2.8); W4 (46.4±2.6) and W12 (46.4±3.1) values suggest that values returned to PS levels (p>0.05) later in season. Additional markers of anemia, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, red cell distribution width were reduced at W12 vs. all time points (all p<0.007). We observed reductions in cardiovascular/metabolic health markers (mg[BULLET OPERATOR]dL-1) LDL, LDL:HDL (no unit), non-HDL, direct LDL, and Apolipoprotein B at W1 (77±20, 3.2±0.5, 106±24, 96±25, and 71±17) than at PS (87±22, 2.8±0.5, 93±22, 81±22, and 64±15, all p<0.017). HDL (mg[BULLET OPERATOR]dL-1) was significantly greater at W4 (56±10), W8 (55±10), and W12 (58±11) than at PS (50±8, all p<0.05). Total cholesterol (mg[BULLET OPERATOR]dL-1) was significantly elevated at W8 (163±28, p=0.012) and W12 (168±31, p=0.007) vs. W1 (145± 26). CONCLUSIONS: Our panel detected a decrease in HCT beginning at W1, but improved cardiovascular/metabolic health throughout the season. Ongoing analysis aims to optimize this general health panel for practical use by correlational analysis to performance data.