Members of the College of Family Physicians of Canada may claim one non-certified credit per hour for this non-certified educational program.
Mainpro+® Overview
Dr. Marina Abdel Malak is a Family Medicine Resident at the University of Toronto. She graduated and completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and went on to study Medicine. She has a passion for medical education, patient empowerment, and increasing awareness about the relationship between mental, emotional, and physical health.
Abstract
Physicians will undoubtedly follow athletic patients in their practice, and must therefore be aware of the cardiac adaptations that occur in these patients. Athletic heart syndrome (AHS) is a term used to describe the physiologic adaptation (leading to cardiac hypertrophy and/or dilation) that the heart undergoes in response to intense physical activity. Although these are adaptive responses, physicians need to ensure that these changes are not due to pathological causes such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, other genetic or congenital disorders, etc. To do so, physicians must take a through history from the athlete (including family history), conduct a physical exam, and order investigations (such as ECGs, an echocardiograph, etc.) as appropriate. If a pathologic cause is not identified and AHS is noted to be the sole cause of these changes, the athlete should still be counselled on how to safely participate in physical activity.
Key Words: Athletes, cardiovascular care, sports medicine, primary care, screening.
Primary care physicians will see patients in clinic who are elite or recreational athletes.1 Some of these patients will be engaging in intense physical activities that stimulate the heart to enlarge in mass or chamber size (i.e. hypertrophy or dilation) in order to cope with increased workload. This physiologic adaptation allows the heart to increase the stroke volume, the amount of blood ejected per heartbeat. Because of this change, the heart is able to eject more blood in fewer beats, which results in a lower heart rate (i.e. 45 times per minute, as opposed to the normal average of 70-80 beats per minute). These changes, termed 'athletic heart syndrome' (AHS)2 allow for increased oxygen transport and blood flow, permitting the athlete to engage in their physical activities.