The Athlete's Heart in Adolescent Africans: An Electrocardiographic and Echocardiographic Study

Objectives The goal of this study was to define electrocardiographic (ECG) and echocardiographic characteristics of adolescent African athletes. Background Recent observations in African athletes reported large prevalence of left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and ECG abnormalities. No data, so far, exist for adolescent Africans, which comprise a growing proportion of competitive/professional athletes. Methods The study included 154 soccer players participating at the 8th African Under-17 Championship of 2009, representing Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gambia, Guinea, Malawi, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. For comparison, 62 Italian players with similar ages, sport achievements, and training schedules were included. Results African athletes showed higher R5/S1-wave voltages than Caucasian athletes (48.6 ± 12.1 mm vs. 34.1 ± 8.9 mm; p Conclusions African athletes displayed large proportion of ECG abnormalities, including a striking increase in R/S-wave voltage, ST-segment elevation, and deeply inverted or diffusely flat T waves by adolescence. LV remodeling in African athletes was characterized by a disproportionate wall thickening than in Caucasians but similar cavity size. Finally, distinctive peculiarities existed in African athletes according to the country (and ethnic) origin.