title: Myocardial fibrosis in an veteran endurance athlete.
abstract: This study reports the cardiac structure and function of a lifelong male endurance athlete, who has run over 148 000 miles, who presented with symptoms of chest discomfort, dyspnoea and loss of competitive running performance. Importantly, the athlete documented several periods of regular intensive endurance activity while suffering with flu-like symptoms. Cardiovascular MRI demonstrated a pattern of late gadolinium enhancement, which indicated myocardial scarring as a result of previous myocarditis.Myocarditis is a non-ischaemic inflammatory disease of the myocardium associated with cardiac dysfunction and arrhythmogenic substrate. The clinical course of viral myocarditis is mostly insidious with limited cardiac inflammation and dysfunction. However, as in the present case, overwhelming inflammation may occur in a subset of patients leading to myocardial fibrosis due to recurrent inflammation.
authors.affiliation: Research Centre for Sport and Exercise Performance, University of Wolverhampton, Gorway Road, Walsall, WS1 3BD, UK.
authors.forename: Mathew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Rory
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: O'Hanlon
authors.forename: Sanjay
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.forename: Sandeep
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Basavarajaiah
authors.forename: Nigel
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Stephens
authors.forename: Roxy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Senior
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.forename: Sanjay
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Whyte