QT Dispersion and Echocardiographic Features in Male Athletes: Geometric Pattern Related Differences

BACKGROUND: Although athletes develop impressive left ventricular (LV) tissue growth, it is unknown whether this exercise-induced LV hypertrophy is associated with increased QT dispersion (QTd) like that observed in patients with hypertensive myocardial hypertrophy. PURPOSE: This study aimed to 1) compare QTd and echocardiographic features between athletes with concentric or eccentric LV hypertrophy, and sedentary controls with a normal LV geometric pattern; and 2) assess the associations between QTd and echocardiographic features among these groups. METHODS: A total of 78 highly trained male athletes with eccentric (n = 38) or concentric LV hypertrophy (n = 40) and 40 age-matched sedentary controls with a normal LV geometric patterns volunteered to participate in this study. All participants underwent electrocardiographic and echocardiographic screening. The data were analyzed using one-way analyses of variance with Bonferroni post-hoc tests and Pearson product-moment correlations. RESULTS: Intraventricular septal wall thickness (WT), posterior WT, and relative WT were significantly higher (p < 0.001) in athletes with concentric LV hypertrophy compared to athletes with eccentric LV hypertrophy and controls. The LV end-diastolic diameter and LV end-systolic diameter were significantly higher in athletes with eccentric LV hypertrophy compared to athletes with concentric LV hypertrophy and controls. While both groups of athletes displayed a significantly higher LV index (p < 0.001) compared to controls, QTd was significantly lower in athletes with eccentric LV hypertrophy compared to athletes with concentric LV hypertrophy and sedentary controls. Significant, moderate-very large correlations were found between corrected QTd and intraventricular septal WT in athletes with concentric (r = 0.416, p = 0.008) or eccentric LV hypertrophy (r = 0.734, p < 0.001) and sedentary controls (r = 0.464, p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate reduced QTd in athletes with eccentric LV hypertrophy, which reflects homogeneous ventricular repolarization in this group compared to sedentary controls with a normal LV geometric pattern and athletes with concentric LV hypertrophy.