Cardiovascular function and the veteran athlete.
The cardiovascular benefits of exercise are well known. In contrast, the impact of lifelong endurance exercise is less well understood. Long-term high-intensity endurance exercise is associated with changes in cardiac morphology together with electrocardiographic alterations that are believed to be physiologic in nature. Recent data however has suggested a number of deleterious adaptive changes in cardiac structure, function and electrical activity, together with peripheral and cerebral vascular structure and function. This review serves to detail knowledge in relation to; (1) Cardiac structure and function in veteran endurance athletes focusing on the differentiation of physiological and pathological changes in cardiac remodelling; (2) Cardiac electrical activity and the veteran endurance athlete with attention to arrhythmias, the substrate for arrhythmia generation and the clinical significance of such arrhythmias; (3) Peripheral and cerebral vascular structure and function in ageing and endurance-trained individuals; and (4) directions for future research.
Wilson
M
M
ASPETAR, Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, PO Box 29222, Doha, Qatar. mathew.wilson@aspetar.com
O'Hanlon
R
R
Basavarajaiah
S
S
George
K
K
Green
D
D
Ainslie
P
P
Sharma
S
S
Prasad
S
S
Murrell
C
C
Thijssen
D
D
Nevill
A
A
Whyte
G
G
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D056352:Athletes; D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; D002319:Cardiovascular System / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged