The prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy in elite professional footballers

Background: We evaluated the prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy in elite footballers compared with sedentary controls. A total of 141 elite ma le professional footballers and 32 healthy sedentary controls were studied. Echocardiographic and demographic variables were compared between groups b y unpaired t-test. Results: The prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy with:maximal wall thickness values outwith the normal range (>12 mm) was no ted. Footballers were significantly younger than controls (20.9 vs. 24.3 ye ars, P<0.005: 95% CI (-5.2, -1.73)) but there were no significant differenc es in height, weight or body surface area between the groups. Each of inter -ventricular septum (10.4 vs. 9.1 mm, P<0.0001; 95% CT (0.88, 1.72)), poste rior wall (9.2 vs. 8.5 mm, P<0.01; 95% CI (0.22, 1.21)), left ventricular c avity (systolic and diastolic) (34.5 vs. 28.4 Mn, P<0.0001; 95% CI (4.31, 7 .76) in systole; 50.1 vs. 48.2 mm, P<0.05; 95% CI (0.15. 3.74) in diastole) , aortic root size (29.1 vs. 27.8 mml P<0.05, 95% CI (0.03,2.49)) and left ventricular mass index (112 vs. 89 g/m(2), P<0.0001; 95% CT (14.4, 32.1)) w ere significantly greater in footballers than in controls. Absolute left ve ntricular wall thickness >12 mm was present in 17 footballers (12%) (range 13-15 mm) and in no controls. Conclusions: Elite professional footballers h ave increased cardiac dimensions compared with healthy controls. The preval ence of absolute wall thicknesses outwith the normal range is relatively hi gh. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.