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Left ventricular end‐diastolic geometrical adjustments during exercise in endurance athletes
Author(s) -
Henriksen Egil,
Sundstedt Milena,
Hedberg Pär
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
clinical physiology and functional imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.608
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1475-097X
pISSN - 1475-0961
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-097x.2007.00768.x
Subject(s) - medicine , ventricle , cardiology , diastole , stroke volume , endurance training , athletes , end diastolic volume , heart rate , blood pressure , physical therapy
Summary The increase in left ventricular (LV) end‐diastolic volume has recently been shown to explain more than 70% of the increase in stroke volume during upright exercise in endurance athletes. As the end‐diastolic volume enhancement not could be explained by an increase in axial cavity length an augmentation in LV short‐axis diameters is to be expected. To investigate LV end‐diastolic geometrical alterations during exercise, 15 endurance athletes were examined using contrast exercise echocardiography. LV end‐diastolic short‐axis diameters were made from apical views at several LV cavity levels. From upright rest to upright exercise the LV end‐diastolic internal cavity measurements increased significantly. During exercise, the LV cavity became geometrically more spherical with the largest increase in the LV end‐diastolic short‐axis cavity diameters in the mid and apical parts of the left ventricle. The LV internal long axis showed significant increase from rest to exercise but the absolute increase was small.