Aerobic Capacity in Adults with Congenital Heart Disease: More than VO, a Follow-Up Study.

To control the development of people with congenital heart disease (CHD), it is important to follow their aerobic capacity (AC), especially when they exercise. This research aimed to study the progress of AC during a follow-up of adults with CHD. This is a longitudinal study which involved 127 adults with a mean age of 33.

Myocardial remodelling and tissue characterisation by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) in endurance athletes.

Unlabelled: There is still some controversy about the benignity of structural changes observed in athlete's heart, especially regarding the observation of increased biomarkers and the presence of myocardial fibrosis (MF).

Aim: Our purpose was to evaluate by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) the presence of diffuse as well as focal MF in a series of high-performance veteran endurance athletes.

Methods: Thirty-four veteran healthy male endurance athletes, still being in regular training, with more than 10 years of training underwent a CMR.

Effects of an Exercise Programme on Functional Capacity, Body Composition and Risk of Falls in Patients with Cirrhosis: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Unlabelled: Patients with cirrhosis often have functional limitations, decreased muscle mass, and a high risk of falls. These variables could improve with exercise. The aim was to study the effects of moderate exercise on functional capacity, body composition and risk of falls in patients with cirrhosis.

Long-term follow-up of early repolarization pattern in elite athletes.

Background: Early repolarization pattern (ERP) is considered a benign variant of the electrocardiogram (ECG), more frequent in athletes. However, prospective studies suggested that ERP is associated with an increased risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD). The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence, clinical characteristics, and long-term outcome of ERP in elite athletes during professional activity and after retirement.

[Cardiopulmonary stress testing in children who have had congenital heart disease surgery. Physical exercise recommendations during school hours].

Introduction And Objectives: To analyze and discover if stress testing with exhaled gases in children who have had congenital heart surgery is useful so we could make physical exercise recommendations according to heart disease, type of surgery performed, present hemodynamic state and level of exercise practiced.

Methods: Prospective study of 108 children, who performed stress testing with exhaled gases, electrocardiogram monitoring and blood pressure. A questionnaire was used to obtain variables concerning heart disease, surgery, present functional condition and level of exercise practiced.

Long-term follow-up of bradycardia in elite athletes.

The aim of the study was to examine the hypothesis that when former high-level athletes retired from competition, bradycardia would vanish. ECG changes and factors possibly related to the persistence of bradycardia were investigated. We performed a longitudinal follow-up study in 157 former elite athletes who had records of bradycardia < 50 bpm when they were active in high-level competition.

[Acute coronary events among spectators in a soccer stadium].

The aim of this study was to describe acute coronary syndromes (ACS) with a substantial emotional component in spectators of professional league competition sports events. The study was done at the Barcelona soccer team's home stadium. We recorded cases of ACS that occurred during official competition matches during the 2000-2001 season.

Left ventricular end-diastolic volume is decreased at maximal exercise in athletes with marked repolarisation abnormalities: a continuous radionuclide monitoring study.

Purpose: Although marked repolarisation abnormalities (MRAs) are considered innocuous in trained athletes, their functional significance awaits clarification. The aim of this study was to further evaluate the pathophysiological implications of such MRAs.

Methods: We compared left ventricular (LV) functional response to exhausting exercise in 39 male athletes with (n=22) or without (n=17) MRAs and with no structural cardiac abnormalities, by means of a portable radionuclide monitoring system (Vest, Capintec, Inc.

Concordance between rest MIBG and exercise tetrofosmin defects: possible use of rest MIBG imaging as a marker of reversible ischaemia.

Perfusion imaging combined with pharmacological stress is the study of choice in patients with ischaemic heart disease who are incapable of exercising. Some medical conditions, however, can preclude the use of pharmacological stress. In these particular situations, availability of a diagnostic test which allows for the assessment of ischaemic territory at rest would be desirable.

Marked ventricular repolarization abnormalities in highly trained athletes' electrocardiograms: clinical and prognostic implications.

Objective: We sought to study the functional, clinical and prognostic implications of marked repolarization abnormalities (MRA) sometimes seen in athletes' electrocardiograms (ECGs).

Background: The clinical meaning of ECG MRA in athletes is unknown. No relationship has been drawn between either training intensity or any particular type of sport and MRA.

Myocardial sympathetic innervation in the athlete's sinus bradycardia: is there selective inferior myocardial wall denervation?

Background: Sinus bradycardia in trained athletes is predominantly a manifestation of increased vagal tone, but it is not known whether an alteration in the cardiac sympathetic system can contribute to blunted chronotropic response. This study assessed the integrity of the sympathetic system in trained athletes with sinus bradycardia by means of the iodine-123-metaiodobenzylguanidine (123I-MIBG) procedure.

Methods And Results: Fourteen athletes with sinus bradycardia and 8 athletes with a normal heart rate were explored by means of planar and single photon emission computed tomography MIBG studies.

Influence of exercise rehabilitation on myocardial perfusion and sympathetic heart innervation in ischaemic heart disease.

Exercise rehabilitation improves the clinical status in ischaemic heart disease. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of exercise rehabilitation on myocardial perfusion and sympathetic heart innervation. Sixteen patients with ischaemic heart disease and previous myocardial infarction were investigated by means of exercise/rest tetrofosmin and metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) exercise/rest single-photon emission tomography (SPET) studies, before and 6 months after starting an exercise rehabilitation programme.

[The effect of a race 4 hours in duration on the production of beta-endorphin and adrenocorticotropic hormone].

Background: Physiological hormone adaptation to a prolonged and submaximum exercise is not well known. The present study was designed to evaluate changes in plasma levels of beta-endorphin and ACTH before and after a 4 hour pedestrian race.

Subjects And Method: Fourteen amateur athletes enrolled in a 4-hour race were studied.

Ascorbic acid inhibits the increase in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) susceptibility to oxidation and the proportion of electronegative LDL induced by intense aerobic exercise.

Background: We have previously reported the finding of an acute increment in the susceptibility of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) to oxidation and in the proportion of electronegative LDL [LDL(-)] after intense exercise. We have now studied the effect of oral supplementation with 1 g ascorbic acid, immediately before a 4-h athletic race, on the susceptibility of LDL to oxidation, the proportion of LDL(-), and the alpha-tocopherol and lipid peroxides content in LDL, in order to inhibit such deleterious changes, and to confirm the oxidative nature of modifications of LDL induced by exercise.

Methods: We studied seven highly trained runners who received a supplement of 1 g ascorbic acid and a control group of seven who did not receive the supplement.

Influence of prolonged exercise on myocardial distribution of 123I-MIBG in long-distance runners.

Background: A study was conducted to determine if prolonged exercise could provoke sympathetic neuronal alteration in an athlete's heart through assessment of myocardial distribution of 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) in nine ultramarathon runners at baseline and after a 4-hour race.

Methods And Results: After injection of 370 MBq of 123I-MIBG, the athletes ran for 4 hours, covering 45 +/- 8 km. Planar and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images of the thorax were acquired at the end of the race.

Marathon runners presented lower serum cholesteryl ester transfer activity than sedentary subjects.

Acute exercise promotes raised HDL cholesterol concentrations by lipolysis stimulation, but this effect is insufficient to explain the more permanent HDL increases seen during regular exercise. During training periods in a group of marathon runners, we measured lipid transfer protein I (LTP-I)-mediated cholesteryl ester transfer activity (CETA) and its relationship to their HDL concentrations. Runners of both sexes showed significantly lower CETA values than those of sedentary controls.

[Biventricular functional adaptation during a prolonged race. An analysis of global and regional ventricular function].

To determine the effects of a six-hour competitive race on left and right ventricular performance, 99mTc gated blood pool scans were performed to 6 long distance runners before the race (rest), each hour during the race and one hour after concluding the exercise (recovery). Heart rate increased during the race, peaking at 4th hour of competition (55 +/- 3 to 110 +/- 9 lpm; p = 0.001).

Transient alterations in cardiac performance after a six-hour race.

Ten long distance runners were enrolled in a 6-hour competitive race. Immediately after the race technetium-99m-albumin gated blood pool scans were performed and indium-111 antimyosin was injected. Forty-eight hours later antimyosin scans were obtained and control gated blood pool scans were performed.

[Circumferential profiles versus visual analysis in studies of myocardial perfusion during exertion using thallium-201].

Two methods of analysis for perfusion myocardial studies with thallium are compared: the conventional visual analysis, and a quantitative method which shows results as circumferential profiles. Three hundred and ninety myocardial segments in 65 patients were studied. Visual analysis showed abnormalities in 44/65 (68%) patients, the quantitative method did it in 53/65 (81%).

Gastric emptying in marathon runners.

Radionuclide gastric emptying studies using 99m-Tc human serum albumin egg omelette have been carried out in 10 long distance runners at rest and during a 90 minute run at sustained speed. Resting values are compared with controls comprising 10 sedentary subjects. Runners show a significantly accelerated basal gastric emptying (runners t 1/2 = 67.