title: Aortic root dilatation among young competitive athletes: echocardiographic screening of 1929 athletes between 15 and 34 years of age.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Aortic dilatation can be lethal for young competitive athletes. The prevalence among athletes is not known, however, and thus a reasonable approach to early recognition remains uncertain.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Echocardiograms of 1929 normotensive athletes 15 to 34 years of age were analyzed. Five (0.26%) athletes had aortic dilatation; 4 of the 5 played basketball. This made the prevalence of aortic dilatation 0.96% (4 of 415) among basketball and volleyball players, who represented a population of especially tall athletes. Tallness aside, only 2 of the 5 athletes had features of Marfan syndrome. Among the athletes without aortic dilatation, the relation between body surface area and aortic root dimension was nonlinear and best described with a quadratic regression model. Athletes with aortic dilatation fell well outside the 95% confidence interval.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Because a higher incidence of aortic dilatation is to be anticipated among very tall athletes, inclusion of echocardiography in screening before participation in certain sports should be considered.
authors.affiliation: Sports Medicine Research Center, Keio University, Japan. kinoshit@hc.cc.keio.ac.jp
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kinoshita
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mimura
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Obayashi
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Katsukawa
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Onishi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamazaki
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001013:Aorta, Thoracic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D001018:Aortic Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004108:Dilatation, Pathologic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008382:Marfan Syndrome / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008403:Mass Screening; D012307:Risk Factors; D013177:Sports / Q000502:physiology*