BRIEF REPORT - HEALED MYOCARDITIS AS A CAUSE OF VENTRICULAR REPOLARIZATION ABNORMALITIES IN ATHLETES HEART

In the past myocarditis has been suggested as a possible cause of repo larization abnormalities in sportsmen, but, to our knowledge, no direc t in-vivo demonstration of this relationship has so far been found. We report the cases of three professional athletes with repolarization c hanges at rest and/or during exercise and mild segmental wall motion a nomalies in the left ventricle on echocardiography, in whom myocarditi s was diagnosed by non-invasive and invasive clinical investigations, including endomyocardial biopsy. We think that probably the frequency with which myocarditis is responsible for electrocardiographic and ech ocardiographic abnormalities in athletes has so far been underestimate d, and that caution must be employed when interpreting minor segmental wall motion abnormalities on resting and exercise echocardiograms in trained subjects as being due to athlete's hart, especially when they present with repolarization changes.