© 2005 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine
CASE REPORT
Ventricular septal defect in a world class runner
1 Department of Cardiology, Sport Medicine Center, Higher Sports Council, Madrid, Spain
2 Exercise Physiology Laboratory, European University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
3 Department of Exercise and Sport Science, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, La Crosse, WI, USA
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Alejandro Lucia
Universidad Europea de Madrid, Departamento de Ciencias Morfologicas y Fisiology, Edificio A, Despacho 330, E-18670 Madrid, Spain; alejandro.lucia{at}uem.es
We report the case of an elite male, East African endurance runner (18 years old) who ranked in the top 15 in the World Cross Country Championships (sub 21 year old category) despite having a ventricular septal defect (VSD; width: 0.22 cm) that was diagnosed 2 weeks after this event with echocardiographic evaluation. This athlete was a moderate altitude native (
3000 m). Cardiac dimensions were within normal limits and no significant pathological signs were observed. His Vo2max was relatively low given his performance level (67.9 ml kg–1 min–1). Despite his limited training background (only 1 year), his running economy was, however, better than the values reported in our laboratory for Caucasian runners of the same age. Further cardiological follow up might confirm that the VSD causes no pathological effects or any performance detriment in future years.
Abbreviations: ECG, electrocardiographic; IVSTd, interventricular septal wall thickness at end-diastole; LAD, left atrial dimension; LLAD, longitudinal left atrial dimension; LRAD, longitudinal right atrial dimension; LV, left ventricle; LVMI, left ventricular mass index; RV, right ventricle; VSD, ventricular septal defect
Keywords: African; athlete’s heart; echocardiography; economy; endurance runners
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Br. J. Sports Med. 2005 39: 428.
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