Abstract
Power athletes abuse anabolic androgenic steroids (AASs) and growth
hormone (GH) to gain their muscular mass and strength. We wanted to determine
how massive, self-administered doses of AASs with or without GH affect the left
ventricular (LV) dimensions in power athletes. These substances are assumed to
increase LVmass mainly by thickening the ventricular walls. Anecdotal evidence
suggests a higher risk of cardiovascular events in AAS abusers. We were
interested to see if LV dimensions and function in AAS abusers would indicate
this increased risk. Twenty healthy male power athletes using massive doses of
AAS without (n = 16) or with (n = 4)
GH volunteered for the study. The controls were 15 sedentary male non-users of
hormones. LV mass, geometry and filling were studied using standard
echocardiographic methods. We found a significant association between LV mass
and AAS dose (r = 0.54, p < 0.015). In
contrast to the controls, LV mass (274 g in the athletes, 167 g
in the controls) among the AAS abusers did not correlate with body weight or
height. Concomitant use of AAS and GH further increased LV mass and associated
with concentric remodelling of LV. Multiple regression analysis indicated that
the mean AAS dose accounted for 29 %, age for 14 %
and systolic blood pressure for 17 % of the variance in LV mass.
We concluded that AAS abuse associates dose-dependently with myocardial
hypertrophy and that concomitant use of GH associates with concentric
remodelling of the LV. Our findings suggest that AASs and GH have a direct
effect on the myocardium.
Key words
Substance abuse - left ventricular hypertrophy
References
tuomo.karila@ktl.fi
