[The risk of mitral pathology in marphanoid female basketball players].
Recently much research has been done focusing on the problem of athlete's heart as a physiological phenomenon as well as a cause of morbidity or even mortality. The question rises whether pathology discovered in some athletes was primary or developed after professional excessive training program.


OBJECTIVE
We studied a group of young female athletes (basketball players) to test the hypothesis that marfanoid habitus, favorable in this sport, could bear predisposition for pathology of the heart.


METHODS
We studied 38 young female athletes, mean age 15 (+/- 1.8) years, participants of special education program for talented sportsmen from all over Poland. Athletes were included on the basis of outstanding results and participating at least one year in professional basketball. Complete echocardiographic examination was performed according to protocol which included M-mode, 2D and color Doppler. Systolic and diastolic morphologic and functional parameters were assessed and compared to normal values related to the age.


RESULTS
Stature of studied athletes exceeded the 95 percentile. There were no significant differences in morphological parameters of the heart. Mitral incompetence (at least II grade) was a common finding in this group (37%). In the group exhibiting marphanoid habitus, mitral incompetence was present in all except one case (89%).


CONCLUSIONS
Tall stature being favorable in basketball promotes athletes with marphanoid habitus which have higher risk of mitral incompetence.
Siniawski
Andrzej
A
Akademia Medyczna w Poznaniu, I Klinika Kardiologii i Katedra Kardiologii. siniawski@poczta.onet.pl
Szyszka
Andrzej
A
Gwizdała
Adrian
A
Płońska
Edyta
E
Cieśliński
Andrzej
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000886:Anthropometry; D001490:Basketball / Q000502:physiology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001827:Body Height / Q000502:physiology; D004452:Echocardiography; D018618:Echocardiography, Doppler, Color; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008944:Mitral Valve Insufficiency / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008945:Mitral Valve Prolapse / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011044:Poland; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment