Left ventricular mass, geometry, and filling in endurance athletes: association with exercise blood pressure

Jouko Karjalainen 1 , Matti Mäntysaari 1 , Matti Viitasalo 2 , and Urho Kujala 3 1 Central Military Hospital and Research Institute of Military Medicine, 00301 Helsinki; 2 First Department of Medicine, Helsinki University Hospital, 00290 Helsinki; and 3 Research Institute for Sports and Exercise Medicine, 00250 Helsinki, Finland Received 28 May 1996; accepted in final form 21 October 1996. Karjalainen, Jouko, Matti Mäntysaari, Matti Viitasalo, and Urho Kujala. Left ventricular mass, geometry, and filling in endurance athletes: association with exercise blood pressure. J. Appl. Physiol. 82(2): 531-537, 1997. We studied whether left ventricular (LV) mass and concentricity [relative myocardial volume (RMV)] are associated with exercise blood pressure (BP) in athletes. LV structure and filling were evaluated by Doppler echocardiography and BP in maximal bicycle ergometry and isometric handgrip tests on 32 male endurance athletes and 15 age-matched controls. Indexed LV mass was 145 ± 14 (SD) g/m in athletes and 93 ± 20 g/m in controls. Mass was not associated with BP at rest or in low-grade exercise, but with heavier exercise loads this association strengthened in athletes, being maximal at peak exercise ( r = 0.65 for mass and 0.58 for indexed mass; P