Sport disciplines and cardiac remodeling in elite university athletes competing in 2017 Taipei Summer Universiade

Cardiac remodeling is common in the athletes. Little data is available regarding the cardiac remodeling on the recently proposed 4 sport disciplines among the elite university athletes. A total of 7639 athletes participated in the 2017 Taipei Summer Universiade. Cardiac evaluation via history, ECG, and echocardiography were performed in 826 athletes who signed up for Check Up Your Heart. Athletes were grouped into one of 4 sport disciplines Skill, Power, Mixed, and Endurance. After excluding 66 participants with missing demographic data, 13 missing echocardiographic data, and 24 inadequate echocardiographic images, a total number of 723 university athletes (mean age 23 ± 3 years, 419 males) from 99 countries engaging in 25 different sporting events were analyzed. Electrocardiograms showed that Endurance group had a slower heart rate and higher percentage of left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy (39%). Echocardiograms showed there were significant differences in LV mass index (P < .001), LV geometry (P < .001), left atrial (LA) dilatation (P = .026), right ventricular (RV) dilatation (P < .001), right atrial (RA) dilatation (P < .0001), and tricuspid annular plane systolic excurse (P = .006). LV ejection fraction, LV strain, RV strain, and LV diastolic function showed no difference in 4 sport disciplines. Eccentric LV hypertrophy was the most common type of cardiac remodeling in the university athletes participated in 2017 Taipei Summer Universiade. Adaptive changes in chamber size were more commonly seen in Endurance sport. RA dilatation was the most sensitive to hemodynamic demand, followed by RV dilatation, LA dilatation, and LV dilatation.