title: Prognostic significance of long ventricular pauses in athletes.
abstract: The long-term prognosis of athletes with long ventricular pauses has been unknown. In this study, thirty highly-trained cross-country skiers and 24 age-matched controls underwent 24 h Holter monitoring to detect the duration of the longest ventricular pause (LVP), and we followed the athletes for more than 3 years to evaluate prognostic significance of prolonged LVP. The LVPs of the athletes averaged 2.2 +/- 0.6 sec (range 1.3-3.4), which were significantly longer than those, 1.6 +/- 0.3 sec, of the controls. In the athletes, 20 cases (66.7%) had LVPs more than 2 sec, and 5 (16.7%) showed LVPs longer than 3 sec. During 3 years follow-up, no athletes had symptoms of near syncope, syncope or death under continued heavy training. Our study suggested that athlete with prolonged ventricular pause, even of 3 sec or more, did not have a different clinical risk than those without long pauses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Self Defense Force Sapporo Hospital, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ogawa
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tabata
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ohishi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hitomi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shiomi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Akita
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Haga
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Katsurada
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001919:Bradycardia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015716:Electrocardiography, Ambulatory; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006327:Heart Block / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006339:Heart Rate; D006352:Heart Ventricles; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D013177:Sports