Athlete's Heart

[sailing123]

Hi,  I was recently (4 months ago) diagnosed with an "athlete's heart".  I had an echo preformed as part of a life insurance test, which showed an enlarged left ventricle.  I had the following follow up test to confirm: gated nuclear stress, MRI, and two additional echos (the third being two months after the first two).  The results were an EF of 59% and mild left ventricle dilation, 60mm.  The left atrium is also slighty dilated.  All of the test showed a normal healthy heart, except for the dilation.  My cardiologist diagnosed me with "athelete's heart" as I am in excellent shape with a rigourous 5 to 6 day work out routine.  I have no pathological symptoms.  I have signifigantly reduce my work out and was wondering how long it would take to 'decondition' and possibly reduce the heart size to confirm the diagnosis.  

[Dr Santos]

Hi,
How are you? Some people with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy do not present with symptoms and live a normal life. However, people with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy are at higher risk for sudden death especially in athletes, than the normal population.
It is important that you always follow your doctor's advice concerning exercise and medical appointments. Avoiding strenuous exercise is important. Take care and do keep us posted.

[grendslori]

Your posting is confusing to some degree. There is a disease called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy in which the heart muscle wall (or several walls) become too thick and the muscle becomes stiff, unable to relax properly to allow the cavities to fill properly and to pump properly. (It is the opposite of Dilated Cardiomyopathy where the walls are too thin, which is much more common.) Sometimes people who exercise in access, shall we say, can develop "Athletes Heart" In this disorder, if you want to call it that, ALL of the heart wall muscles become thickened. The muscles aren't dilated, that would be the opposite of "Athelet's Heart". When a patient has HCM, the first thing doctor's consider is Athelete's Heart as the actual problem, but history, along with checking the amount of walls involved, will help determine which is the true diagnosis.