Abstract
One hundred and twenty-five healthy, male top-level athletes were evaluated by echocardiography
(Echo) and assigned to six groups according to the size of the left ventricular mass
(L. V. Mass), calculated according to Devereux R. B. et al.: ≤ 200, 201-250, 251-300,
301-350, 351-400, or > 400g.
Echo evaluation of coronary artery (c. a.) proximal size was performed following the
method described by Kalavathy et al. (J Am Coll cardiol 1986, 8, 1119-1124). Two of
us separately conducted the measurement of the c. a. diameter at ≅ 1 cm from the respective
aortic ostium on M-Mode tracings and 2-D end-diastolic frames. The inter-observer
variability was lower for the M-Mode (4.2%) than 2D (9.3%) measurements: the correlation
between A and B observers equals r = 0.867 for the right c. a., and r = 0.859 for
the left main c. a.
In a subset of 38 athletes, maximum oxygen uptake was tested during maximal exercise
test (V̇O2max).
For both the right and the left main c. a. the mean diameter (mm) increased in relation
to increasing L. V. Mass: 5.6 ± .5 and 6 ± .5, respectively, for L. V. Mass ≤ 200
g; 6.1 ± .5 and 6.6 ± .9 for L. V. Mass = 201-250 g; 6.4 ± .6 and 6.8 ± .6 for L.
V. Mass = 251-300 g; 6.7 ± .7 and 7 ±.6 for L. V. Mass = 301-350 g; 7.2 ± .6 and 7.3
± .8 for L.V. Mass = 351-400 g and finally 7.7 ± .9 and 7.9 ± .8 for L.V. Mass > 400
g.
A significant correlation (r = 0.495; P < .01) between right + left main c. a. diameter
(↑3) and left ventricular mass, and even higher (r = 0.686; P < .001) between c. a.
diameters and left ventricular wall thickness, was found. A feeble linear correlation
(r = .371, P < 0.2) was found between VC2max (1/min) and c. a. size.
This study therefore indicates that training-induced myocardial hypertrophy involves
a proportionate increase of c. a. dimension.
Key words
Coronary arteries - left ventricular hypertrophy - sports activities
