Sudden death due to physical exercise in the elderly.

Physical exercise has a beneficial effect to the humans. Sudden death in healthy persons engaged in physical exercise is extremely rare since healthy heart is protected from complications. The records of five elderly men who died during or immediately after exercise in the period between 1988-2001 in our region have been given, out of 23 men (and no one woman) aged 14-68 who died due to physical exercise in that time. They have been engaged in tennis, jogging and swimming recreatively. In all of them coronary heart disease has been found by the forensic autopsy. Only one has had arterial hypertension, symptoms of chest pain few years before accident and acute myocardial infarction has been found. The other four have been without symptoms. In three of them myocardial scars have been found of past myocardial infarctions. In all of them the thickness of the left ventricle wall was 15 mm or more (from 15 to 25 mm). It seems that the thickness of the wall of the left ventricle increases cardiovascular risk in persons without symptoms. In Croatia about 7% of the whole population are engaged in recreation. In this population 13% are elderly: 40,950. The reported five deaths due to recreational physical exercise in the elderly reached 1/114,660 persons every three years, or 1/573,300 persons during fourteen years.

[The cardiovascular system and sports]. / Kardiovaskularni sustav i sport.

The article deals with the athlete's heart syndrome as well as the views on this phenomenon throughout this century. The basic diagnostic procedures for heart examination as a part of general medical examination are listed. The authors confront the position recommendations of American and European authors for determining eligibility for competition in athletes with cardiovascular abnormalities.

Effect of hyperbaric oxygenation on maximal aerobic performance in a normobaric environment.

Eighteen female physical education students, randomly divided into three groups, inhaled 100% O2 for 60 minutes in a hyperbaric chamber. Pressure in the chamber amounted to 2.8 ATA. Three days before the hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO) all the students were subjected to a treadmill test. The first group was retested after 30 minutes, the second after 3 hours and the third 6 hours after the HBO. The first and the second groups of subjects achieved statistically significant maximal oxygen consumption after the HBO (14.4 and 10% respectively) and were capable of sustaining considerably higher exertion on treadmill (12.8%, namely 18.1%, both values were significant on the level of p less than 0.05). The ventilation efficiency parameters (VEO2 and R) did not differ with any of the three groups of subject during the exertion before and after the HBO, although after the HBO the exertion was considerably higher.

Echocardiographic findings in children participating in swimming training.

In 72 children having a body surface area from 0.8 to 1.6 m2 who systematically trained in swimming at last for 1 year, or an average of 29.2 months, echocardiographic recordings were done to find out which changes result from systematic training. The results obtained were compared with values obtained in 72 normal children, having the same body area, but who did not actively engage in sports. The measurements and analyses showed that values of the left ventricular interior diameter (LVID), left atrium (LA), and heart depth (DS) were statistically significantly increased. The values of septum thickness (SE) and left ventricular posterior wall (LVPW) were a bit larger, but statistically not significant. Contractibility of the myocardium was also examined by measurement of the ejection fraction (EF), percentage of the shortening of the left ventricle (%FS), and average velocity of the circumferential shortening of the muscular fibers (VCF). The values obtained were within limits of normal values. Results of the analysis of the influence of sports training on echocardiographic dimensions indicated four positive correlations: left ventricular interior diameter in systole (LVIDs) and diastole (LVIDd), diameter of the left atrium (LA), and heart depth (DS). In recording echocardiograms in children, it is necessary to establish whether the child actively engages in sports beforehand since long-term training leads to changes of some heart structures, which may, if it is not known that the child is active in sports, lead to wrong conclusions that the finding is pathological.