Physiologic versus pathologic hypertrophy: endurance exercise and chronic pressure overload.
Endurance exercise requires that the heart maintain a highly elevated cardiac output for an extended period of time, working against a slightly elevated afterload. Endurance athletes manifest a large ventricular volume, characterized on echocardiogram by an increased end-diastolic internal diameter and wall thickness. This article describes the structural, functional, and biochemical alterations in the heart as a result of the physiologic stress of exercise, along with the signaling mechanisms for these changes. The article also compares exercise-induced hypertrophy and hypertrophy from chronic pressure overload.
Braun
L T
LT
Department of Medical Nursing, College of Nursing, Rush University, Chicago, Illinois.
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D002302:Cardiac Output; D006332:Cardiomegaly / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications*; D010807:Physical Endurance; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000150:complications