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Adult and adolescent elite black athletes display - as compared with their white counterparts - excessively increased left ventricle ( LV) wall thickness ( LVWT), mass ( LVM), and relative wall thickness ( RWT). To investigate such ethnicity-related differences in non-professional adolescent athletes, 138 male, amateur football players [age 14.0 ± 1.7 years, 42 West- African blacks ( BA) and 96 Italian whites ( WA)] underwent an echocardiographic study of LV diameters, LVWT, maximal wall thickness ( MWT), LVM, and RWT as remodeling index. BA vs WA exhibited greater thickness of septum and posterior wall, higher MWT (10.3 ± 1.7 vs 8.8 ± 1.1 mm), and higher LVM (117 ± 27 vs 101 ± 20 g/m2) and RWT (0.44 ± 0.07 vs 0.35 ± 0.04). Age, systolic blood pressure, body mass index, and ethnicity predicted MWT and LVM, whereas ethnicity was the sole strong predictor of RWT. The greater MWT, LVWT, and LVM of 14-year-old, amateur-level BA vs WA indicates that ethnicity substantially affects LV structure in adolescent, non-professional athletes. In contrast with MWT and LVM, elevated RWT was predicted by black ethnicity only. We suggest that concentric-type LV remodeling is a peculiar LV phenotype in adolescent African athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]