Distinguishing the athlete's heart syndrome from some pathological conditions

Abstract

The response of the body to vigorous physical activity is a multiorgan system phenomenon. As a result, the body undergoes profound morphologic and functional alterations, but as there are different kinds of physical activities, the degree of these changes is highly variable as well. Considering many sudden cardiac deaths in sport, it is needless to say how important it is to know where the border of normal changes of the body due to physical activity is and when these changes become unhealthy. Also it is very important to distinguish physiological changes of the body due to physical activity and pathological changes due to some cardiac diseases. In order to prevent sudden cardiac deaths in sport, it is very important to distinguish athletes heart syndrome and hypertrophic cardiomiopathy, dilatative cardiomiopathy, aritmogenic cardiomiopathy of the right ventricle and myocarditis. More frequent physical examinations of athletes are recommended.