title: Impaired Femoral Vascular Compliance and Endothelial Dysfunction in 30 Healthy Male Soccer Players: Competitive Sports and Local Detrimental Effects.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite beneficial effects of physical activity on cardiovascular risk, discordant data on elite athletes (high atherosclerotic damage in activity comprising strenuous exertion) and retired sportsmen are reported in the literature.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We hypothesize that long-lasting daily physical activity could affect the morphology and function of the carotid and femoral vessel walls differently, as assessed in elite male athletes aged 20 to 30 years compared with age- and sex-matched healthy controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective case-control study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Level 3.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty male subjects (30 athletes and 30 controls) underwent medical examination for ankle brachial index, augmentation index (AIX) and AIX corrected for heart rate (AIXr), peripheral arterial tonometry (PAT), and intima media thickness and pulse wave velocity assay at common carotid (carotid-intima media thickness [c-IMT], carotid-pulse wave velocity [c-PWv]) and femoral arteries (femoral-intima media thickness [f-IMT], femoral-pulse wave velocity [f-PWv]) assessed by ultrasonography using Doppler ultrasound.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Athletes showed a significantly lower heart rate (HR) at rest and a better lipid profile than controls. In athletes, c-PWv (5.87 ± 0.80 vs 6.62 ± 1.02 m/s, P = 0.001) and f-PWv (8.96 ± 1.29 vs 7.89 ± 1.39, P = 0.002) were, respectively, significantly lower and higher than values found in controls; accordingly, carotid AIX (4.03 ± 6.21 vs 7.81 ± 5.21, P = 0.003) and femoral AIX (8.56 ± 10.21 vs 6.09 ± 7.95, P = 0.042) were lower and higher than control values, even after correction for heart rate (P = 0.03). On the other hand, IMT values were significantly higher in controls than in athletes (c-IMT, P < 0.0001; f-IMT, P < 0.0001). A positive significant correlation between HR and c-IMT and f-IMT (r = 0.527, P < 0.001 and r = 0.539, P < 0.0001, respectively) and between HR and c-PWv (r = 0.410, P = 0.01) was found when controls and athletes were considered as a whole group. Soccer players showed lower PAT values in comparison with controls (P = 0.002).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Elite sports positively affect c-IMT, f-IMT, and carotid PWv and AIX but not femoral PWv, AIX, AIXr, or PAT.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Physical activity affects vascular beds in elite athletes differentially, depending on the rate of superior or inferior limb involvement in different sports. In soccer players, physical activity has a protective effect on carotid and femoral vessel walls but worsens femoral arterial and endothelial function. These findings highlight how different results can be shown on carotid and femoral districts, when these vascular districts are differently stressed during sport activity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cioni
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Berni
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Italy ; Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation Italy, Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Gian Franco
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Gensini
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Rosanna
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Abbate
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boddi
keywords: arterial stiffness; intima media thickness; peripheral arterial tonometry