A comprehensive electrocardiographic analysis for young athletes

ECG-based differences between athletes and sedentary adolescents are a frequently investigated subject in sports medicine. Especially, training-induced ECG variations are common in adult athletes and sustained training often leads to anatomical changes in the heart that can yield abnormalities in ECG. Therefore, ECG screening in athletes is important in diagnosis of cardiac problems of young athletes. The present work investigated the ECG characteristics of young athletes in terms of both gender and sedentary healthy young control group differences. Besides comparison between groups, analysis parameters were also investigated within the groups using correlation analysis. ECG characteristics were extracted using wavelet transform-based adaptive algorithms. Results showed that ECGs of athletes demonstrate differences related to gender and compared to young sedentary. Athletes had significantly lower heart rate; higher QTc, P, and T amplitudes; ST segment; and ST, QT, and RR intervals compared to control group (p < 0.05). Proposed new parameter, namely "scalogram" of each wave, was lower in male athletes compared to other groups (p < 0.05). Negative correlation between T wave amplitude and RR interval could be an indicator of long QT syndrome for male athletes. Furthermore, prolongation of QRS interval in athletes could be the underlying reason of changes in T wave amplitude. Findings of this study can propose indicators for understanding the possible diseases as well as help evaluate the sudden changes in athlete's heart.