Abstract des Autors

Disturbances in the iron metabolism are common pathologic findings in endurance athletes. We investigated the iron metabolism and red cell count in long-distance runners during a training period in which an overtraining syndrome was generated. An increase in red cell formation occurred, which contributed to the observed depletion of the iron pool. Increased reticulocyte count was caused by high frequency and increased volume of highly intensive training. The reason might be the compensation of the augmented blood loss, which was caused by mechanical and/or osmotic intravasal hemolysis or microbleedings from epithelial lesions of gut and urine bladder. Even though no coherence between erythropoiesis, depleted iron stores and induced overtraining was detected, these findings are obviously caused by the same factors. Verf.-Referat