The Veteran Athlete's Heart (Version 2)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Veteran Athlete's Heart
IRAS ID
132679
Contact name
Sanjay Sharma
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
St George's University of London
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The benefits of exercise have been well documented. Individuals who exercise regularly live longer and have reduced morbidity compared to their sedentary counterparts. The Department of Health (UK) recommends 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week for adults. Endurance athletes perform way beyond the recommended levels of exercise, often undertaking several hours of training per day and participating in physically gruelling events such as marathons and triathlons. There is burgeoning debate as to the health implications of such high intensity exercise. Recent research has mainly focused on the acute effects of exercise in young athletes. However, the chronic effect of bouts of ultra-endurance training in the older “veteran” athlete has been largely neglected.
The aim of this research is to study the cardiovascular effects of lifelong endurance exercise in the veteran athlete. We seek to explore the anatomical, electrophysiological, and functional sequelae to chronic endurance training and offer, where possible, a pathophysiological explanation. We hypothesise that chronic bouts of strenuous training fosters deleterious changes to cardiac structure and function. We speculate that the mechanism is by pathological remodelling, culminating in myocardial fibrosis which acts as a substrate for the generation of arrhythmias. The methods used in the study include electrocardiography, echocardiography, blood tests for cardiac damage and scarring, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, CT coronary angiography and cardiac MRI. All of these tests will be performed under standard medical practice. We will be comparing lifelong veteran athletes with individuals of the same age who are either sedentary or do only moderate exercise.
REC name
South West - Central Bristol Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/SW/0163
Date of REC Opinion
5 Aug 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion