Doppler transmitral and pulmonary venous flow in young orienteers and sedentary young adults

Doppler filling indices may provide important information on left ventricul ar diastole and possibly diastolic adaptation in endurance athletes. We the refore undertook a comparative study to obtain reference values for transmi tral and pulmonary venous Doppler flow velocities and to characterize diffe rences between young orienteers and young sedentary adults. Seventy-six eli te orienteers (42 female and 34 male; 17-30 years old) and 61 sedentary you ng subjects (32 female and 29 male; 17-33 years old) underwent echocardiogr aphy. No significant differences between the athletes and sedentary control s regarding peak transmitral flow were found, although the athletes had sig nificantly higher peak pulmonary flow velocity during diastole than the sed entary controls (0.69 +/- 0.13, 0.61 +/- 0.10, 0.78 +/- 0.12, and 0.57 +/- 0.09 m/sec for female athletes, female sedentary controls, male athletes, a nd male sedentary controls, respectively). Because no significant differenc es were revealed in the transmitral flour velocities between the athletes a nd the sedentary subjects, the relative force between the left atrium and t he left ventricle should not diverge during early filling. Art increase in pulmonary venous pressure or a decrease in, left atrial pressure can augmen t the force between the pulmonary veins and the left atrium. A rise in pulm onary venous pressure is a hemodynamically unlikely adaptation in endurance athletes; therefore, to maintain the same transmitral pressure with an ass umed lower left atrial pressure, the data suggest a more rapid relaxation. and an improved left ventricular elastic recoil, which would enable the ath letes to achieve a more rapid negative left ventricular pressure change dur ing early filling.