Cardiovascular evaluation, including resting and exercise electrocardiography, before participation in competitive sports: cross sectional study.

Objective: To evaluate the clinical usefulness of complete preparticipation cardiovascular screening in a large cohort of sports participants.

Design: Cross sectional study of data over a five year period.

Setting: Institute of Sports Medicine in Florence, Italy.

Microvolt T-wave alternans as predictor of electrophysiological testing results in professional competitive athletes.

Background: Several studies have confirmed the equivalence of the microvolt T-wave alternans (mTWA) and the electrophysiology (EPS) tests in cardiac disease. No data are available in populations of competitive athletes with arrhythmias that might jeopardize the pursuit of their professional career.

Methods: We prospectively studied 100 trained competitive athletes, including elite types (72/100), (mean age +/- standard deviation: 26.

ACE I/D polymorphism and cardiac adaptations in adolescent athletes.

Purpose: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to determine whether there is a correlation between left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism in adolescent athletes.

Methods: Seventy-five competitive soccer players (aged 15 +/- 1.2 yr) and 52 untrained control subjects (aged 15 +/- 1.