Echocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy in Chinese endurance athletes

Most echocardiographic data on the athletic heart syndrome originate from the United States and Western Europe. There are no published data on echocardiographically documented left ventricular hypertrophy in Asian athletes. We investigated the echocardiographic changes which take place with endurance training by studying eight Hong Kong national cyclists. This study confirms that left ventricular hypertrophy and increased left ventricular end-diastolic dimensions are common findings in Chinese endurance athletes as in their Caucasian counterparts. Calculated left ventricular muscle mass exceeded the 95th percentile in seven of eight subjects.