Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2003 Dec;89(12):1455-61.
doi: 10.1136/heart.89.12.1455.

Athlete's heart

Affiliations
Review

Athlete's heart

Robert Fagard. Heart. 2003 Dec.
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Heart rate, peak oxygen uptake (V̇o2), and left ventricular mass (LVM) in 127, 18–34 year old men according to weekly hours of sports activity. (a) adjustal for height and weight.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Right precordial leads V1–3 in athletes. Note the variable QRS pattern in lead V1. The ST-T segments show variable combinations of ST elevation (with upward concavity to convexity) and upright, diphasic, or inverted T waves.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Left precordial leads V4–6 in athletes. Note the high R wave in some athletes and the variable pattern of the ST-T segment.

References

    1. Fagard R Professor, Aubert A, Staessen J, et al. Cardiac structure and function in cyclists and runners. Comparative echocardiographic study. Br Heart J 1984;52:124–9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fagard RH. Athlete’s heart: a meta-analysis of the echocardiographic experience. Int J Sports Med 1996;17 (suppl 3):S140–4. ▸ This meta-analysis shows that the classification of left ventricular hypertrophy in athletes as eccentric or concentric is not an absolute or dichotomous concept but has to be considered a relative concept. - PubMed
    1. Fagard RH. Impact of different sports and training on cardiac structure and function. Cardiology Clinics 1997;15:397–412. - PubMed
    1. Pelliccia A, Maron BJ, Spataro A, et al. The upper limit of physiologic cardiac hypertrophy in highly trained elite athletes. N Engl J Med 1991;324:295–301. ▸ This study is important because it attempts to define the upper limit of physiologic cardiac hypertrophy in a large number of highly trained athletes. - PubMed
    1. Pluim BM, Zwinderman AH, van der Laarse A, et al. The athlete’s heart. A meta-analysis of cardiac structure and function. Circulation 1999;100:336–44. ▸ This meta-analysis confirms by use of a different approach that the classification of hypertrophy is not a dichotomous but relative concept. - PubMed