Patterns of ventricular tachyarrhythmias associated with training, deconditioning and retraining in elite athletes without cardiovascular abnormalities.

Ventricular tachyarrhythmias commonly occur in trained athletes during ambulatory Holter electrocardiography and are usually associated with a benign course. Such arrhythmias have been demonstrated to be sensitive to short periods of athletic deconditioning; however, their response to retraining is not known. Twenty-four hour Holter electrocardiographic monitoring was performed at peak training and after 3 to 6 months of deconditioning and was repeated in the present study after 2, 6, and 12 months of retraining in 37 athletes with frequent and complex ventricular tachyarrhythmias and without cardiovascular abnormalities. These subjects showed partial (101 to 500 ventricular premature complexes [VPCs]/24 hours) or marked (