Tissue Doppler Echocardiographic Indices in Athletic Teenagers

Background: The term athlete’s heart is used to describe physiological changes occurring in the heart of a sportsperson. In contrast to young athletes, there is little data on the physiological changes in children during sport activities. The present study was conducted to compare tissue Doppler echocardiographic indices in adolescent athletes and controls. Methods: In a case-control study done in Mashhad, Iran in 2018, 60 male adolescent athletes and 60 healthy individuals as controls were entered. All subjects were examined by a pediatric cardiologist using echocardiography to compare tissue Doppler Echocardiographic indices between case and control groups. Data analysis was done Using SPSS.20 .The significance level was 5%. Results: Age, weight, height, heart rate and fractional shortening at baseline were not different between the two groups. In the athletes group, Ejection fraction (EF) was greater compared to the control group, while Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) and Body Mass Index (BMI) were lower. Univariate analysis of Mitral waves showed that athletes presented greater A, E and E/E` ratio than controls and E` and S are greater in controls than in athletes. In relation to septal waves, only E` was higher in controls. In relation to tricuspid waves A, E, E`/A`ratio and E/E` ratio were higher in athletes as compared to the controls. Conclusion: As a useful imaging tool, echocardiography can be employed to detect underlying heart disorders that may threaten people who exercise. However, better identification of individuals at risk of heart attack or other irreversible cardiac damages requires greater knowledge of the pathophysiology of cardiac adaptation to training.