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Senior Citizen Sports
MRI Helps Identify Older Athletes at Risk for Heart
Attack
Identifies cardiovascular disease not yet causing
symptoms
 November 27, 2006 - A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
study of healthy marathon runners over age 50 showed that cardiovascular
disease occurs among seemingly healthy endurance athletes and may be
difficult to distinguish from the effects of training the heart muscle.
The findings were presented today at the annual meeting of the
Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
“Radiologists can use MRI to identify
cardiovascular disease that is not yet causing symptoms,” said Torleif
A. Sandner, M.D., radiologist at University Hospital, Munich University
in Germany.
The study, performed at University Hospital in
Essen, Germany, involved 110 male volunteers between the ages of 50 and
72, all of whom had completed at least five marathons in the last three
years. The endurance athletes had no current symptoms or known history
of cardiovascular disease or diabetes.
The MRI scans revealed that, although cardiac
chambers were not enlarged, left ventricular mass (LVM) in the marathon
runners was significantly higher than in the general population. LVM is
the weight of the muscle of the left ventricle, the main pumping chamber
of the heart. The marathon runners had an average LVM weight of 141
grams compared to a normal weight of approximately 77.5 grams.
“The change in the heart mass is the way the body
reacts to the endurance training,” Dr. Sandner said. “However, in some
runners, it may also be an early sign of cardiac disease.”
“It is difficult to differentiate an athlete’s
heart from one that has disease,” added Stefan Möhlenkamp, M.D., Ph.D.,
cardiologist and principal investigator of the study. “Establishing
criteria for what is normal in marathon runners of advanced age is one
of the team’s research goals.”
The number of older adults participating in
marathon running has risen dramatically in the past decade. But
according to Dr. Möhlenkamp, pre-training screening of new endurance
athletes doesn’t typically account for problems specific to advanced-age
runners.
“Conventional screening includes a blood pressure
check, questions about heart disease in the family or chest pain,
listening to the heart and lungs and possibly doing an echocardiogram,”
he said. “But these techniques can miss early potentially
life-threatening cardiovascular disease.”
“Exercise is the best thing anyone can do to
prolong and improve the quality of life,” said Dr. Möhlenkamp. “As
physicians, we need to determine how to safely declare an individual of
advanced age fit for marathon running.”
Editor's Notes:
Co-authors are Joerg Barkhausen, M.D., Kai
Nassenstein, M.D., Peter Hunold, M.D. and Frank Breuckmann, M.D.
RSNA is an association of more than 40,000
radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and related
scientists committed to promoting excellence in radiology through
education and by fostering research, with the ultimate goal of improving
patient care. The Society is based in Oak Brook, Ill.
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