Does echocardiography accurately reflect CMR-determined changes in left ventricular parameters following exercise...

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Sports Medicine
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Echocardiography has been the traditional method for assessing cardiac adaptation to exercise.
• Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is increasingly preferred for cardiac morphology assessment.
• Comparisons of imaging modalities in athletes show differences in absolute cardiac dimensions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare changes in cardiac morphology following exercise training using echocardiography and CMR.
• To determine if exercise-induced adaptations in cardiac dimensions are comparable between echocardiography and CMR.
• To investigate discrepancies in assessing left ventricular (LV) mass, volumes, and wall thickness post-training.

Main Methods:

• Twenty-two young men participated in a 24-week supervised endurance or resistance exercise program.
• Echocardiography and CMR were used to assess LV mass, LV end-diastolic volume, internal cavity dimensions, and wall thicknesses.
• Measurements were taken before and after the 24-week training intervention.

Main Results:

• Baseline cardiac parameters differed significantly between echocardiography and CMR.
• LV mass and LV end-diastolic volume showed high correlation between modalities at baseline.
• Changes in cardiac morphology post-training were not significantly related between echocardiography and CMR measures.
• Posterior wall thickness increased by 8.3% with echocardiography but decreased by 2% with CMR.

Conclusions:

• Echocardiography and CMR provide differing assessments of cardiac size and volume changes after exercise training.
• The study highlights significant discrepancies in detecting exercise-induced cardiac adaptations between the two imaging modalities.
• Clinicians should be aware of these modality-specific differences when evaluating cardiac remodeling in response to training.