You are here

Article Text

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

BCS Abstracts 2011
60 Ethnic differences in repolarisation patterns and left ventricular remodelling in highly trained male adolescent (14–18 years) athletes
Free
  1. N Sheikh1,
  2. M Papadakis1,
  3. F Carre2,
  4. G Kervio2,
  5. J Rawlins1,
  6. V Panoulas3,
  7. N Chandra1,
  8. H Raju1,
  9. R Bastiaenen1,
  10. E Behr1,
  11. S Sharma1
  1. 1St. George's University of London, London, UK
  2. 2French Institute of Health and Medical Research, University of Rennes, Rennes, France
  3. 3University Hospital Lewisham, London, UK

Abstract

Purpose Studies in adult, black athletes (BA) demonstrate a high prevalence of ECG repolarisation changes and echocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) that may overlap with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). The prevalence of ECG repolarisation changes and echocardiographic LVH in adolescent BA, the group most vulnerable to exercise-related sudden death from HCM, is unknown.

Methods This study evaluated 219 male adolescent BA (14–18 years, inclusive) with 12-lead ECG and 2-D echocardiography. Results were compared with 1440 male adolescent WA. Athletes with T wave inversions and morphological LVH were invited for further investigation with exercise stress test, 24 h Holter and CMR.

Results ST segment elevation was common in both groups but more frequent in BA (63.5% vs 14.9%, p<0.001), while ST segment depression was exceedingly rare. Both T wave inversions (21.5% vs 2.9%, p<0.001) and deep T wave inversions (11% vs 0.3%, p<0.001) were commoner in BA. Black athletes demonstrated greater left ventricular wall thickness (10.4±1.6 vs 9.4±1.2 mm, p<0.001) compared to WA. Twenty-three (10.5%) BA exhibited a left ventricular wall thickness >12 mm vs only 6 (0.4%) WA (p<0.001). None of the athletes exhibited the broader phenotype of HCM on further investigation. In multivariable analysis black ethnicity was the strongest independent predictor for the presence of T wave inversions (OR 3.56, 95% CI 1.56 to 8.13, p=0.003) and LVH (OR 3.17, 95% CI 1.77 to 5.71, p<0.001).

Conclusions As with adult athletes, T wave inversions and LVH were more prevalent in adolescent BA compared to WA. These findings have important implications in the pre-participation screening era, particularly in countries with a high proportion of BA competing at elite level, since extrapolation of ECG and echocardiographic criteria, solely derived from Caucasian cohorts, would result in 25.6% of BA requiring further investigations for cardiac pathology.

Abstract 60 Figure 1
Abstract 60 Figure 1

Bar chart depicting the distribution of left ventricular wall thickness in black and white adolescent athletes.

  • Athletes
  • repolarisation
  • ethnicity

https://doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2011-300198.60

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.