European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC) and European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) joint position statement: recommendations for the indication and interpretation of cardiovascular imaging in the evaluation of the athlete’s heart

Extract

Table of content

...

1. Introduction

Athletic training is associated with a spectrum of morphologic and functional cardiac adaptations known as ‘the athlete’s heart’.^{1  ,  2} To the purpose of the present document an athlete is defined as an individual of young or adult age, either amateur or professional, who is engaged in regular exercise training and participate in official sports competition. Official sports competition is defined as an organized team or individual sports event that place a high premium on athletic excellence and achievement and is organized and scheduled in the agenda of Athletic Associations.³

A vast amount of literature has been assembled over the last two decades improving our understanding of the characteristics of physiologic cardiac remodelling in athletes. However, there are still areas of uncertainty regarding the differential diagnosis of the most marked expression of the athlete’s heart, with certain inherited cardiac diseases, such as hypertrophic (HCM), dilated (DCM), or arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (AC) and left ventricular non-compaction (LVNC) cardiomyopathy.^4–7