Abstract

Little is known about the structural changes in the school age athletes heart. Echocardiographic study was performed at rest in 9 competing swimmers, 9 moderately active and 10 untrained children all aged 14. Athletes had slightly but significantly increased left ventricular end-diastolic dimension index (30,3 mm|m2), moderately increased left atrium (26,6, 23,1 and 22,6 mm resp.) suggesting increased preload. There was a marked increase in swimmers left ventricular mass (247,8, 172,8 and 143,5 g resp.) associated with significantly increased end-diastolic thickness of both the interventricular septum(11,3 mm compared to 8,3 and 8,7 mm resp.) and the posterior wall (11,8 mm compared to 9,4 and 8,0 mm resp.). The difference in posterior wall thickness between moderately trained and untrained children was significant. There was no difference in the parameters of resting contractility among the groups. Verf.-Referat