CARDIAC STRUCTURE AMONG DIFFERENT SPORTS PLAYERS

Luca Silvestrini¹, Cecilia Pera², Luca Marin^{3, 4, 5}, Massimiliano Febbi^{3, 4, 6}, Dario Silvestri⁶, Vittoria Carnevale Pellino⁵, Matteo Vandoni⁵, Nicola Lovecchio⁷, Alessandro Gatti^{5, *}

¹Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy - ²Corilab Ambulatory, Frascati (Rome), Italy  - ³Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic - ⁴Laboratory for Rehabilitation Medicine and Sport (LARMS), Rome, Italy - ⁵Laboratory of Adapted Motor Activity (LAMA), Department of Public Health, Experimental and Forensic Medicine, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy - ⁶Asomi College of Sciences, Research Department, Malta - ⁷Department of Human and Social Science, University of Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy

Introduction: Competitive sports activities involve morphological and functional cardiac adaptations allowing to optimize cardiac function. The adaptations derived from sports practice are related to genetic factors, age and sport activity, type and intensity of training protocols, which can define different functional and morphological adaptation models (endurance vs resistance vs power/strength). The purpose of our study was, therefore, to verify the presence and extent of specific cardiovascular adaptations to different sports.

Materials and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study on 80 healthy males divided into five groups based on the sport practiced: bodybuilding (BB), volleyball (VB), cycling (CG), running (RN), and no practitioners (SY). During a routine medical visit at 8.00 AM with the same environmental condition (room temperature at 24°), all the participants were asked to undergo a mono and bidimensional echocardiography and tissue Doppler imaging to investigate cardiac dimensions.

Results: Between BB and SY, our results showed only a higher LVED and LVES for BB compared to SY (p<0.05). BB had also a lower BSA, LVM, and PP (p<0.05) than the VB group. No differences were found between CG and RN (p>0.05). Furthermore, our findings revealed that all outcomes except for BSA and LVED index were higher for CG than for SY (p<0.05). 

Conclusions: The continuous practice of bodybuilding is not uniquely associated with an increase in left ventricular mass. From the data obtained in our experimental study, there are no cardiological adaptations worthy of note, having found differences with the sedentary group only in left ventricular systolic and diastolic diameters. Moreover, our results confirm that specific types of training and sports activities influence cardiac output differently in healthy males.