title: Cardiovascular function and the veteran athlete.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: ASPETAR, Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, PO Box 29222, Doha, Qatar. mathew.wilson@aspetar.com
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: O'Hanlon
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Basavarajaiah
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: George
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Green
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ainslie
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Murrell
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thijssen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nevill
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Whyte
mesh_terms: 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