Several adaptations of cardiac shape and function occur with athletic training to improve the heart.s function as a pump and thereby increase aerobic capacity. Maximal oxygen consumption or VO2max is regularly used as an index of physical fitness, but its relationship with left ventricular structural parameters remains unresolved. The aim of the study was to examine the effect of long-term intensive physical training on cardiac responses in highly trained athletes, wrestlers and football players, with different training regimens and reveal the structural parameter of the heart which better correlates with aerobic capacity. Highly trained male athletes, 51 wrestlers and 221 football players, and 48 healthy male sedentary controls underwent cardiovascular evaluation with medical history, physical examination, electrocardiogram, echocardiography and maximal oxygen uptake testing. The data indicate that highly trained male athletes had greater left ventricular internal dimension, left ventricular wall thickness, relative wall thickness, left ventricular mass and mass index than untrained male controls; they exhibit a higher value of maximal oxygen consumption compared to the untrained controls. Physiologic hypertrophy that occurs in the athletes is related to the intensity and duration of the exercise and is directly related to the fitness level or VO2max. It was concluded that VO2max is the variable that better correlates with the LVMI.
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