Left ventricular deformation in athletes playing sports with high dynamics—insights from the three-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiographic MAGYAR-Sport Study

BACKGROUND: Earlier results suggest the role of speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE)-derived left ventricular (LV) strains in screening and could help better understanding of adaptation to exercise. The present retrospective cohort study aimed to investigate three-dimensional STE-derived LV strains representing its deformation in athletes playing sports with high dynamics with different grades of static components of their training. METHODS: The study consisted of 67 athletes (mean age: 23.6±6.4 years, 39 males). This group of athletes was further divided into the following groups: Group C.I. (high dynamic/low static) (n=12), Group C.II. (high dynamic/moderate static) (n=22) and Group C.III. (high dynamic/high static) (n=33). The control group comprised 83 age- and gender-matched non-athletic healthy volunteers (mean age: 23.6±3.2 years, 50 males). RESULTS: Global LV longitudinal strain (LS) representing LV lengthening or shortening (−18.5%±3.0% vs. −16.3%±2.3%, P<0.05), LV circumferential strain (CS) representing LV widening or narrowing (−29.9%±5.2% vs. −28.1%±4.8%, P<0.05) and LV area strain (AS; combination of LS and CS; −43.7%±5.4% vs. −40.9%±4.8%, P<0.05) were increased in elite athletes as compared to those of non-athlete controls. All apical LV strains proved to be increased in all athletes with enhanced basal radial strain (RS, representing LV thickening and thinning) and LS and midventricular LS, AS and 3D strain (3DS, combination of RS, LS and CS). CONCLUSIONS: Increased LV-LS, LV-CS and LV-AS represents enhanced LV deformation in longitudinal and circumferential directions in athletes playing sports with high dynamics. This enhancement is not related to the grade of the static component of training. Some regional differences in LV strains could be detected.