Moderately trained male football players, compared to sedentary male adults, exhibit anatomical but not functional cardiac remodelling, a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Elite athletes have been the subject of great interest, but athletes at an intermediate level of physical activity have received less attention in respect to the presence of cardiac enlargement and/or hypertrophy. We hypothesized that playing football, often defined as demanding less endurance components than running or cycling, would still induce remodelling similar to sports with a dominating endurance component. METHODS: 23 male football players, age 25+/− 3.9 yrs. underwent exercise testing, 2D- and 3D- echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR). The results were compared with a control group of engineering students of similar age. The athletes exercised 12 h/week and the control subjects 1 h/week, p < 0.001. RESULTS: The football players achieved a significantly higher maximal load at the exercise test (380 W vs 300 W, p < 0.001) as well as higher calculated maximal oxygen consumption, (49.7 vs 37.4 mL x kg(− 1) x min(− 1), p < 0.001) compared to the sedentary group. All left ventricular (LV) volumes assessed by 3DEcho and CMR, as well as CMR left atrial (LA) volume were significantly higher in the athletes (3D-LVEDV 200 vs 154 mL, CMR-LVEDV 229 vs 185 mL, CMR-LA volume 100 vs 89 mL, p < 0.001, p = 0.002 and p = 0.009 respectively). LVEF and RVEF, LV strain by CMR or by echo did not differentiate athletes from sedentary participants. Right ventricular (RV) longitudinal strain, LA and right atrial (RA) strain by CMR all showed similar results in the two groups. CONCLUSION: Moderately trained intermediate level football players showed anatomical but not functional cardiac remodelling compared to sedentary males. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12947-021-00263-0.