An update on the Boston Marathon as a research laboratory.
OBJECTIVE
The Boston Athletic Association's annual marathon, also referred to as BAA in this article, continues to be a source of subjects for exercise and endurance performance research. We performed a systematic literature review of BAA studies published in the 7 years since our prior report.


RESULTS
We identified 20 articles published from January 2008 to February 2015. Nine were related to cardiology; six were related to exercise physiology; four were related to metabolism; and one was related to marathon qualifying times. As in our prior, report cardiovascular studies remained the dominant topic, but with risk factors for atherosclerosis and thrombosis as the present focus.


CONCLUSIONS
Cardiac issues remain the largest subject area for BAA studies, but with more emphasis on the effect of prolonged exercise on atherosclerotic and thrombotic risk factors. This shift is associated with an increase in marathon participation by older, recreational runners at increased risk of cardiac complications due to exercise.
a 1 Department of Cardiology, Hartford Hospital , Hartford, CT, USA.
Gregory A
GA
Panza
Beth A
BA
Taylor
Amanda L
AL
Zaleski
Paul D
PD
Thompson
D000368:Aged; D035843:Biomedical Research; D001900:Boston; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D010807:Physical Endurance / Q000502:physiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012420:Running / Q000502:physiology*
Boston Athletic Association; Cardiovascular risk; atherosclerotic complications; endurance exercise; vascular complications