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Echocardiographic Evaluation of the Athlete’s Heart: Focused Review and Update

  • Echocardiography (JM Gardin and AH Waller, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

The athlete’s heart exhibits unique structural and functional adaptations in the setting of strenuous and repetitive athletic training which may be similarly found in pathologic states. The purpose of this review is to highlight the morphologic and functional changes associated with the athlete’s heart, with a focus upon the insights that echocardiography provides into exercise-induced cardiac remodeling.

Recent Findings

Recent studies are aiming to investigate the long-term effects and clinical consequences of an athlete’s heart. The “gray-zone” continues to pose a clinical challenge and may indicate scenarios where additional imaging modalities, or longitudinal follow-up, provide a definitive answer.

Summary

Echocardiography is likely to remain the first-line imaging modality for the cardiac evaluation of elite athletes. Multimodality imaging combined with outcome and long-term follow-up studies both during training and after retirement in both men and women may help further clarify the remaining mysteries in the coming years.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Heart and Vascular Center, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Linda Lee & Karima Addetia

  2. Northwestern Medicine, Regional Medical Group, Winfield, IL, USA

    Amita Singh

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  1. Linda Lee
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Lee, L., Addetia, K. & Singh, A. Echocardiographic Evaluation of the Athlete’s Heart: Focused Review and Update. Curr Cardiol Rep 24, 1907–1916 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-022-01812-3

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