1. Right ventricular assessment of the adolescent footballer’s heart
- Author
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D. X. Augustine, J. Willis, S. Sivalokanathan, C. Wild, A. Sharma, A. Zaidi, K. Pearce, G. Stuart, M. Papadakis, S. Sharma, and A. Malhotra
- Subjects
Sports cardiology ,Cardiomyopathy ,Exercise ,Athlete ,Football ,Echocardiography ,Diseases of the circulatory (Cardiovascular) system ,RC666-701 - Abstract
Abstract Introduction Athletic training can result in electrical and structural changes of the right ventricle that may mimic phenotypical features of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), such as T-wave inversion and right heart dilatation. An erroneous interpretation may have consequences ranging from false reassurance in an athlete vulnerable to cardiac arrhythmias, to unnecessary sports restriction in a healthy individual. The primary aim of this study was to define normal RV dimension reference ranges for academy adolescent footballers of different ethnicities. Secondary aims include analysis of potential overlap between this adolescent group with ARVC criteria and comparison with normal adult ranges. Results Electrocardiographic (ECG) and echocardiographic data of 1087 academy male footballers aged between 13 and 18 years old (mean age 16.0 ± 0.5 years), attending mandatory cardiac screening were analysed. Ethnicity was categorised as white (n = 826), black (African/Caribbean; n = 166) and mixed-race (one parent white and one parent black; n = 95). Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy major criteria for T-wave inversion was seen in 3.3% of the cohort. This was more prevalent in black footballers (12%) when compared to mixed race footballers (6.3%) or white footballers (1%), P
- Published
- 2024
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