Cardiac adaptations in elite female football- and volleyball-athletes do not impact left ventricular global strain values: a speckle tracking echocardiography study.

Cardiac adaptations to exercise on an elite level have been well studied. Strain analysis by speckle tracking echocardiography has emerged as a tool for sports cardiologists to assess the nature of hypertrophy in athletes' hearts. In prior studies, strain values generally did not change in physiological adaptations to exercise but were reduced in pathological hypertrophy.