[Hematologic aspects of the national hockey team athletes]

Athletes tend to have lower hemoglobin (Hb) concentrations than sedentary counterparts. Sports anemia is used to describe both pseudodilutional anemia and the true anemia of athletes. Pseudodilutional anemia is a beneficial adaptation to endurance training; the two most common causes of true anemia are iron deficiency and intravascular hemolysis. We used questionnaires, physical examination and laboratory investigation to study 19 highly trained hockey athletes and laboratory investigation to study 32 outpatients without hematological diseases. One athlete had anemia (Hb 10.5 g/ dL; 5.44 million red cells/mL; serum iron-13 micrograms/dL; without parasites in the stools); the athletes had Hb = 14.88 +/- 1.33 g/dL and the outpatients had 15.24 +/- 0.74 g/dL; the maximal oxygen uptake of the athletes was 54.0 +/- 6.03 ml/kg/min (112.15 +/- 14.35% of the predicted values). The maximal oxygen uptake of the anemic athlete was 86% of the predicted value. The three athletes with the best maximal uptake had a mean Hb = 15.8 g/dL. In São Paulo-Brazil anemia is uncommon among males but elite athletes are in a borderline anemic state, that may impair the physical fitness.