Doppler transmitral and pulmonary venous flow in young orienteers and sedentary young adults

Doppler filling indices may provide important information on left ventricular diastole and possibly diastolic adaptation in endurance athletes. We therefore undertook a comparative study to obtain reference values for transmitral and pulmonary venous Doppler flow velocities and to characterize differences between young orienteers and young sedentary adults. Seventy-six elite orienteers (42 female and 34 male; 17-30 years old) and 61 sedentary young subjects (32 female and 29 male; 17-33 years old) underwent echocardiography. No significant differences between the athletes and sedentary controls regarding peak transmitral flow were found, although the athletes had significantly higher peak pulmonary flow velocity during diastole than the sedentary controls (0.69+/-0.13, 0.61+/-0.10, 0.78+/-0.12, and 0.57+/-0.09 m/sec for female athletes, female sedentary controls, male athletes, and male sedentary controls, respectively). Because no significant differences were revealed in the transmitral flow velocities between the athletes and the sedentary subjects, the relative force between the left atrium and the left ventricle should not diverge during early filling. An increase in pulmonary venous pressure or a decrease in left atrial pressure can augment the force between the pulmonary veins and the left atrium. A rise in pulmonary venous pressure is a hemodynamically unlikely adaptation in endurance athletes; therefore, to maintain the same transmitral pressure with an assumed lower left atrial pressure, the data suggest a more rapid relaxation and an improved left ventricular elastic recoil, which would enable the athletes to achieve a more rapid negative left ventricular pressure change during early filling.