title: Prognostic significance of ventricular extrasystoles in healthy professional athletes: results of a 5-year follow-up.
abstract: To assess the natural history of ventricular extrasystoles (VE), a 5-year follow-up of 52 professional endurance athletes was made. All remained well during this period. Forty-four accepted to undergo repeat extensive noninvasive cardiologic examination. In the 23 athletes still in activity at the second study the prevalence of total and complex VE at 24-hour Holter monitoring was substantially unchanged, while in the 21 subjects who had stopped training, complex VE were no longer present (p = 0.01 vs. baseline). Echocardiographic dimensional parameters were significantly higher in the still active athletes than in the no longer active subjects; however, in the latter, left ventricular mass index was still greater than in a group of 40 sedentary subjects previously studied (107 vs. 81 g/m2; p = 0.001). High-intensity physical training does not seem to be harmful in athletes with complex VE, without evidence of underlying cardiac disease.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Medicine, 1st Medical Clinic, University of Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Palatini
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Scanavacca
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bongiovì
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dall'Agata
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Maraglino
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mormino
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Pessina
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001642:Bicycling; D005117:Cardiac Complexes, Premature / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002306:Cardiac Volume / Q000502:physiology; D004452:Echocardiography; D015716:Electrocardiography, Ambulatory; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006327:Heart Block / Q000503:physiopathology; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010807:Physical Endurance / Q000502:physiology*; D012420:Running; D013177:Sports; D013617:Tachycardia, Supraventricular / Q000503:physiopathology; D017180:Tachycardia, Ventricular / Q000503:physiopathology