Coronary Risk in Cohort of Paralympic Consecutive Athletes

Japy Angelini Oliveira Filho ^1*, Xiomara Miranda Salvetti ¹, Marco Tulio de Mello ¹, Antonio Carlos da Silva ¹ and Braulio Luna Filho ¹

¹ São Paulo Federal University, Brazil

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: japyoliveira{at}uol.com.br.

Accepted 7 August 2006

Abstract

Our purpose was to determine the prevalence of coronary risk factors in paralympic athletes and evaluate their risk of coronary events. This is an observational prospective cross-sectional study of 79 consecutive Brazilian paralympic athletes (PA), mean age 27.8 ± 6.7 years (median 26 years). There were 56 men and 23 women with physical or visual disabilities, respectively 67 and 12 subjects. We investigated the occurrence of systemic hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes mellitus, smoking, familial antecedents, obesity, and hypertriglyceridemia. We calculated the risk of coronary events (American Heart Association, Coronary Risk Handbook - AHA/CRH) and the 10-year probability of coronary event by Framingham Risk Score. The risk factors prevalence was: systemic hypertension (11%), familial antecedents (10%), smoking (9%), hypertrigliceridemia (6%), hypercholesterolemia (1,3%), obesity (4%), diabetes (0%). They occurred in 51% of the PA: 1 factor (41%), 2 factors (4%) and 3 factors (5%). The risk of coronary events (AHA/CRH) was: absent (80%), mild (17%) or moderate (3%). It was evaluated in 81% of the PA, because there were amputeed athletes (8%), young athletes (9%) and unknown familial antecedents (2%). The Framingham Risk Score ranged from -14 to +6, predicting a 10-year probability of coronary event of 3.3% ± 3.8%. This study showed a reasonable prevalence of coronary risk factors (51%), in despite of a low probability of coronary events in PA. The lipid and blood pressure profiles were similar in ambulatory and wheelchair bound athletes.

Key Words: Diabetes, Dislipemia, Hypertension, Paralimpic, Smoking

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?