Left atrial enlargement in competitive athletes and atrial electrophysiology

Abstract Introduction and objectives There are scarce data on left atrial (LA) enlargement and electrophysiological features in athletes. Methods Multicenter observational study in competitive athletes and controls. LA enlargement was defined as LA volume indexed to body surface area ≥ 34 mL/m2. We analyzed its relationship with atrial electrocardiography parameters. Results We included 356 participants, 308 athletes (mean age: 36.4 ± 11.6 years) and 48 controls (mean age: 49.3 ± 16.1 years). Compared with controls, athletes had a higher mean LA volume index (29.8 ± 8.6 vs 25.6 ± 8.0 mL/m2, P = .006) and a higher prevalence of LA enlargement (113 [36.7%] vs 5 [10.4%], P C I, 4.7-44.0; P Conclusions LA enlargement is common in adult competitive athletes but is not accompanied by a significant modification in electrocardiographic parameters.