Dataset Information

Echocardiographic Characterization of Female Professional Basketball Players in the US.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

There is a paucity of data detailing cardiac remodeling in female athletes compared with male athletes. The lack of reference cardiac data for elite female basketball players or female athletes of similar size makes it difficult to differentiate athletic remodeling from potential underlying cardiac disorders in this population of athletes.

Objective

To assess cardiac structure and function in elite female basketball players.

Design, setting, and participants

This cross-sectional echocardiographic study included 140 Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) athletes on active rosters for the 2017 season. The WNBA mandates annual preseason stress echocardiograms for each athlete. The WNBA has partnered with Columbia University to annually perform a review of these studies. Data analysis was performed from June 7, 2017, to October 5, 2017.

Main outcomes and measures

Echocardiographic variables included left ventricular (LV) dimensions, wall thickness, mass, prevalence of LV hypertrophy, aortic dimensions, right ventricular (RV) dimension, and right and left atrial size. Linear regression was used to assess the associations between cardiac structure and function with body size quantified as body surface area (BSA) in the primary analysis.

Results

A total of 140 female athletes (mean [SD] age, 26.8 [3.9] years; 105 [75.0%] African American) participated in the study. Mean (SD) athlete height was 183.4 (9.0) cm, and mean (SD) BSA was 2.02 (0.18) m2. Compared with guideline-defined normal values, LV enlargement was present in 36 athletes (26.0%) and 57 athletes (42.2%) had RV enlargement. There was a linear correlation between LV and RV cavity sizes and BSA extending to the uppermost biometrics (LV cavity size: r, 0.48; RV cavity size: r, 0.32; P < .001 for both). Maximal left ventricular wall thickness (LVWT) ranged from 0.6 to 1.4 cm, with 78 athletes (55.7%) having LVWT of 1.0 cm or greater and only 1 athlete (0.7%) having LVWT greater than 1.3 cm. Twenty-three athletes (16.4%) met the criteria for left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) (>95 g/m2). Eccentric LVH was present in 16 athletes (69.6%), concentric LVH in 7 athletes (30.4%), and concentric remodeling in 27 athletes (19.3%). Mean aortic root diameter was 3.1 cm (95% CI, 3.0-3.2). Only 2 athletes (1.4%) had guideline-defined aortic enlargement compared with a range of 18% to 42% for left and right ventricular and atrial enlargement.

Conclusions and relevance

In this study, increased cardiac dimensions were frequently observed in WNBA athletes. Both BSA and physiologic remodeling affected cardiac morphologic findings. This study may provide a framework to define the range of athletic cardiac remodeling exhibited by elite female basketball players.

SUBMITTER: Shames S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7315385 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Background: The interpretation of young athletes' performance during pubertal years is important to support coaches' decisions, as performance may be erroneously interpreted due to the misalignment between chronological age (CA), biological age (BA) and sport age (SA). Aim: Using a Bayesian multilevel approach, the variation in longitudinal changes in performance was examined considering the influence of CA, BA (age at menarche), SA, body size, and exposure to training among female basketball players. Method: The study had a mixed-longitudinal design. Thirty eight female basketball players (aged 13.38 ± 1.25 years at baseline) were measured three times per season. CA, BA and SA were obtained. Anthropometric and functional measures: countermovement jump, Line drill (LD), Yo-Yo (Yo-Yo IR1). Based on the sum of the z-scores, an index of overall performance was estimated. The effects of training on longitudinal changes in performance were modeled. Results: A decrease in the rate of improvements was apparent at about 14 years of age. When aligned for BA, the slowing of the rate of improvements is apparent about 2 years after menarche for LD. For countermovement jump longitudinal changes, when performance was aligned for BA improvements became linear. For Yo-Yo IR1 and performance index, both indicators showed a linear trend of improvement when aligned for CA and BA, separately. Older players showed higher rates of improvement for Yo-Yo IR1 and performance index from pre-season to end-season. When considering performance changes aligned for BA it was apparent an improvement of performance as players became biologically mature. Conclusions and Implications: The alignment of CA with BA and SA provides important information for coaches. Human growth follows a genetically determined pattern, despite variation in both tempo and timing. When the effects of maturation reach their end, all the girls went through the same process. Hence, there is no need to artificially manipulate youth competitions in order to accelerate gains that sooner or later reach their peak and tend to flat their improvement curve.