Myocardial Fibrosis in Competitive?Triathletes Detected by Contrast-Enhanced CMR Correlates With?Exercise-Induced Hypertension and?Competition History

摘要

10 training h per week (43 ± 10 years of age; 65%?male) and 36 sedentary controls were studied by using LGE and extracellular volume (ECV) CMR. Parameters of physical fitness were measured by spiroergometry. Triathletes reported their lifetime competition results. ResultsLGE CMR revealed focal nonischemic myocardial fibrosis in 9 of 54 (17%) male triathletes (LGE+) but in none of the female triathletes (p? 1,880 km completed during competition had the highest accuracy to predict?LGE, with an area under the curve value of 0.876 (p?< 0.0001), resulting in high sensitivity (89%) and specificity (79%). Multivariate analysis identified peak exercise systolic blood?pressure (p?< 0.05) and the swimming race distance (p?< 0.01) as independent predictors of LGE presence. ConclusionsMyocardial fibrosis in asymptomatic triathletes seems to be associated with exercise-induced hypertension and the race distances. There appears to be a safe upper limit, beyond which exercise may result in myocardial fibrosis.