Magnetic resonance imaging of athlete's heart: myocardial mass, left ventricular function, and cross-sectional area of the coronary arteries

To evaluate left ventricular myocardial mass and function as well as ostial coronary artery cross-sectional area In endurance athletes, an athlete gro up of 12 highly trained rowers and a control group 12 sedentary healthy sub jects underwent MR examination. An EGG-gated breath-hold cine gradient-echo sequence was used to calculate myocardial end-diastolic and end-systolic v olumes, stroke volume, and cardiac output, all related to body surface area , as well as ejection fraction, A 3D fat-saturated ECC- and respiratory-tri ggered navigator echo sequence was used to evaluate coronary arteries: left main (LM) left anterior descending (LAD), circumflex (LCx), and right coro nary artery (RCA). Cross-sectional area was calculated and did for body sur face area. Myocardial mass was nd significantly larger in athlete group tha n in control group (p = 0.0078), the same being for end-diastolic volume (p = 0.0078), stroke volume (p = 0.0055), LM (p = 0.0066) and LAD (p = 0.0129 ). No significant difference was found for all the remaining parameters. Si gnificant correlation with myocardial as found for LM (p < 0.001) and LAD ( p = 0.0340) not for LCx and RCA; Magnetic resonance imaging is a useful too l in evaluating the myocardial hypertrophy and function of athlete's heart. Magnetic lance angiography is a valuable noninvasive sci to visualize the correlated cross-sectional increase of the left coronary artery system.