Assessment of left ventricular systolic function in amateur marathoners by two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography / 中华超声影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To assess the left ventricular (LV) systolic function in amateur marathoners by two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography.Methods:A total of 59 amateur marathon runners were recruited from January 2019 to June 2020 in Hangzhou and were divided into group A (>2-5 years) and group B (>5 years) based on their time of participating in marathon. Thirty-one healthy volunteers were enrolled from Affiliate Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University during the same period as a control group. Conventional echocardiography combined with two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging were applied to all the subjects to obtain interventricular septum diastolic thickness (IVSd), LV posterior wall thickness(PWd), LV end-diastolic diameter (LVEDd), relative wall thickness(RWT) and LV mass(LVM), LV end-diastolic volume(EDV), LV end-systolic volume(ESV) and stroke volume(SV), LV ejection fraction(LVEF), LV global longitudinal strain (GLS), and global circumferential strain (GCS). Pre-marathon, 1 hour and 4th day post-marathon echocardiography were performed in amateur marathon runners.Results:Compared with the control group, group A amateur marathon runners showed significant increases in IVSd, PWd, LVEDd, RWT and LVM(all P<0.05); In addition, the IVSd, PWd, LVEDd, RWT, LVM, EDV, ESV and SV in group B runners were further increased compared to those of group A runners (all P<0.01). The LVEF and pre-marathon GCS showed no statistically significant differences among the three groups (all P>0.05), while the pre-marathon GLS showed a statistically significant difference among the three groups ( P<0.01). Compared with group A runners, the pre-marathon, 1 hour and 4th day post-marathon GLS and 1 hour post-marathon GCS were significantly decreased in group B runners (all P<0.01); In intra-group comparison, 1 hour post-marathon GLS was significantly decreased in relative to pre-marathon and 4th day post-marathon GLS in both group A and B (all P<0.05). One hour post-marathon GCS was significantly decreased compared with pre-marathon GCS in group B ( P<0.05). Conclusions:Amateur runners who have participated in long time marathon have reduced LV longitudinal strains and transient post-marathon decreases in LV systolic function.