VENTRICULAR REPOLARIZATION MEASURES IN PROFESSIONAL AND AMATEUR ATHLETES WITH HIGH NORMAL ARTERIAL PRESSURE

There is merely little data regarding changes in repolarization among professional athletes with prehypertension, especially in comparison with amateur athletes. It was previously shown that disturbances of repolarization may have an important role in the development of cardiac changes in athletes and be observed in a number of conditions, such as ventricular hypertrophy, channelopathies, and aortic aneurysm. Therefore, in this study, it has been aimed to compare the ventricular repolarization measures in professional and amateur athletes with high normal arterial pressure.Thirty professional and thirty amateur all-around track and field athletes were enrolled in this project. According to the level of sport activities and the presence of HNBP, all athletes were divided into 4 groups. The first group consisted of professional athletes with normal and optimal blood pressure (NOBP) values (<130/80 mmHg, total of 21 persons), the second group was formed by 9 professional athletes with HNBP (≥130/85 mmHg), the following 3rd (17 persons) and 4th (13 persons) groups were composed by amateur athletes with the level of arterial blood pressure up to 130/85 mmHg and higher respectively. We have indicated that professional athletes with upper normal values of blood pressure have an extension of the TpTe interval compared to other groups of athletes, the average value of this indicator comprised 86 ± 10.94 ms, which, however, was below the dangerous level of >100 ms. This group of people also showed an increase in the ratio of TpTe/QT values (p=0.001) in the absence of a significant difference in S-Tpc intervals (p=0.605). These changes indicate an increase in transmural dispersion of repolarization with the development of left ventricular remodeling of professional athletes with upper normal values of blood pressure. In order to establish a connection between the revealed features of repolarization and non-functional overreaching/overtraining and altered autonomic cardiovascular activity with sympathetic activation syndrome, other pathogenesis features, their clinical and prognostic value, further examinations are required.