143 Echocardiographic assessment of cardiac remodeling in the high-level football player

Introduction The aim of this study is to assess the morphological and hemodynamic cardiovascular changes of 24 high-level football players, using Doppler-echocar-diography, and compare them to a similar control group. Methods and results Twenty-four elite football players were matched to 24 normal subjects according to age, sex, and body surface. All participants had a clinical examination, resting ECG, Doppler-echocardiography and a measurement of maximal oxygen uptake (VO 2 max). The echocardiographic variables were compared between two groups by the Student's t-test and other statistical tests, using the SPSS 12 for Windows software. Compared to the control group, the wall thickness (10.49+1.04 vs. 7.5+2.04 mm, p Conclusion This study on the cardiac remodeling in high-level athletes permits to have a distinctive approach between physiological and pathological remodeling. This remodeling varies according to the player's post and exercise capacities. In a football player, a correlation between physical level and physical capacity is plausible.