Sports Cardiology Relationships between sports-specific characteristics of athlete’s heart and maximal oxygen uptake Julie Barbier a,b , Emmanuelle Lebiller b,c , Nathalie Ville b,c , Franc¸ oise Rannou-Bekono a,b and Franc¸ ois Carre´ b,c a EA 1274 – Laboratory of Physiology and Biomechanics of Muscular Exercise, UFR-APS, University of Rennes 2, b G.I.S. ‘Sciences of Movement’ and c EA 3194 – Laboratory of Medical Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Rennes 1, Rennes, France. Received 15 June 2005 Accepted 29 September 2005 Background Improvement to maximal oxygen uptake is mainly due to myocardial adaptations brought about by physical training. As a consequence, the athlete’s heart echocardiographic modifications associated with these adaptations are already well-known. We studied the relationships between maximal oxygen uptake (ml/min) and resting echocardiographic patterns in three athlete groups. Methods Tumbling (n = 16), canoeing (n = 12), cycling (n = 12) and untrained (n = 19) participants performed clinical examination and an echocardiogram. Trained groups performed a maximal graded exercise test on a cycle ergometer with gas exchange analysis. Results Sport-specific cardiac hypertrophy was observed. No significant echocardiographic difference was noted between untrained and tumbling participants. Canoeists showed higher end-diastolic thickness of the interventricular septum (P < 0.001) and left ventricle mass (P < 0.05) than untrained and higher posterior wall thickness (P < 0.001) and than untrained and tumbling participants. In comparison between untrained, tumbling and cycling participants, left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (P < 0.001) and left ventricular mass (P < 0.001) was higher in cyclists. In trained subjects studied as a global group, the main linear correlation with maximal oxygen uptake concerned left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (r = 0.92; P < 0.001), left ventricular mass (r = 0.60; P < 0.001) and to a lesser extent aortic (r = 0.39; P < 0.01) and left atrium (r = 0.36; P < 0.05) diameters and E (r = 0.38; P < 0.05) and A (r = – 0.33; P < 0.05) Doppler peak velocities. Each trained group showed specific correlations between echocardiographic parameters and absolute maximal oxygen uptake. No further correlation was noted with left ventricular end-diastolic diameter or left ventricle mass when each group was studied individually. Conclusions In athletes, maximal oxygen uptake is partly linked to some resting echocardiographic parameters. Specific relationships between maximal oxygen uptake and some echocardiographic parameters in relation to the sport practised are also observed. Eur J Cardiovasc Prev Rehabil 13:115–121 c 2006 The European Society of Cardiology European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation 2006, 13:115–121 Keywords: athlete’s heart, sports-specific heart characteristics, maximal oxygen uptake Introduction Two main types of physical exercise, dynamic and static, are classically described. Briefly, dynamic exercise in- duces rhythmic muscular contractions with muscle length changes and static exercise involves a sustained muscular contraction with a high intramuscular force and is often associated with temporary apnoea. The physical exercise acute cardiovascular adaptations depend for a large part on the performed exercise type [1]. Thus, it has been proposed to classify sports according to the type and intensity of the performed exercise [1]. Physical exercise chronic cardiac adaptations, called ‘athlete’s heart’, have been extensively studied with echocardiography [2,3]. The sports-specific adaptive Correspondence and requests for reprints to Julie Barbier, Laboratory of Physiology and Biomechanics of Muscular Exercise, UFR-APS, University of Rennes 2., Av. Charles Tillon, 35044, Rennes Cedex, France. Tel: +33 2 99 14 1775; fax: +33 2 99 14 17 74; e-mail: Julie.barbier@uhb.fr 1741-8267 c 2006 The European Society of Cardiology Copyright © European Society of Cardiology. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/eurjpc/article/13/1/115/5932788 by guest on 26 September 2023