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Cardiac function and physical working capacity of athletes with altered ventricular repolarization

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Abstract

The structural-functional characteristics of the cardiovascular system in 527 trained athletes were studied. The study has been performed for 10–15 years. All athletes were divided into two groups. Group A (437 persons) included athletes with normal electrocardiogram (ECG) pattern; group B (90 persons), athletes with atypical signs of ventricular repolarization. The results of this study suggest that the characteristic features of the cardiovascular system of the athletes with atypical patterns of ventricular repolarization, as well as that of the athletes with normal ECG patterns, include bradycardia, hypotension, regulated myocardial hypodynamia syndrome, heart chamber dilation, increased weight of the left ventricular myocardium (with an increased functional capability of an arbitrary unit of its chamber and myocardium), an increased stoke volume, more economical cardiac contraction at rest, and an increased physical working capacity. The degree of changes in these parameters was the same as in athletes with normal ECG. This fact allowed us to define the entire complex of characteristics of the blood circulation system in either group (A and B) as a physiological athlete’s heart.

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Original Russian Text © Z.B. Belotserkovskii, B.G. Lyubina, G.A. Koidinova, 2009, published in Fiziologiya Cheloveka, 2009, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 90–100.

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Belotserkovskii, Z.B., Lyubina, B.G. & Koidinova, G.A. Cardiac function and physical working capacity of athletes with altered ventricular repolarization. Hum Physiol 35, 80–89 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119709010137

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