Publications by authors named "M Penza"
CMR native T1 and T2 mapping in Olympic athletes: the influence of sports discipline and sex.
Eur Heart J Cardiovasc Imaging
December 2024
Aims: Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) has a growing role in evaluating athletes' hearts. Mapping techniques provide added value for tissue characterization, but data on athletes and sports disciplines are lacking. To describe native mapping values in a cohort of Olympic athletes and evaluate the influence of sports discipline and sex.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) provides information on morpho-functional abnormalities and myocardial tissue characterisation. Appropriate indications for CMR in athletes are uncertain.
Objective: To analyse the CMR performed at our Institute to evaluate variables associated with pathologic findings in a large cohort of athletes presenting with different clinical conditions.
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to assess heart health in competitive athletes recovering from COVID-19 by following a set protocol, which included various cardiac tests.
- Conducted on 219 athletes (mostly young adults), the study found good overall exercise capacity, with only 0.9% diagnosed with acute myocarditis and a small proportion (9.5%) showing uncommon premature ventricular contractions.
- The findings suggest that while serious heart complications are rare, monitoring for unusual heart rhythms is necessary in athletes returning to play post-COVID-19.
Recent reports based on cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) showed a wide range of prevalence of inflammatory heart diseases in COVID-19 convalescent athletes ranging from 0.4 up to 15%. These observations had an important impact in the field of sport cardiology opening an intense debate around the best possible screening strategy before the return-to-play.
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