title: Left ventricular longitudinal strain in soccer referees.
abstract: Along the years, the analysis of soccer referees perfomance has interested the experts and we can find several types of studies in literature using in particular cardiac imaging. The aim of this retrospective study was to observe relationship between VO2max uptake and some conventional and not-conventional echocardiographic parameters. In order to perform this evaluation, we have enrolled 20 referees, belonging to Italian Soccer Referees' Association and we have investigated cardiovascular profile of them. We found a strong direct relationship between VO2max and global longitudinal strain of left ventricle assessed by means of speckle tracking echocardiographic analysis (R2=0.8464). The most common classic echocardiographic indexes have showed mild relations (respectively, VO2max vs EF: R2=0.4444; VO2max vs LV indexed mass: R2=0.2268). Therefore, our study suggests that longitudinal strain could be proposed as a specific echocardiographic parameter to evaluate the soccer referees performance.
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Galeazzi Orthopedic Institute, Cardiology Unit, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gianturco
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Galeazzi Orthopedic Institute, Rehabilitation Unit, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Bodini
authors.affiliation: Foro Italico University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gianturco
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational and Environmental Health University of Milan, IRCCS Fondazione Policlinico Mangiagalli Regina Elena, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lippo
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Galeazzi Orthopedic Institute, Cardiology Unit, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Agnese
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Solbiati
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Galeazzi Orthopedic Institute, Cardiology Unit, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Turiel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012916:Soccer / Q000502:physiology*; D013318:Stroke Volume; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: LV mechanics; VO2max; myocardial function; soccer refereeing; speckle tracking echocardiography