Development of the left ventricular hypertrophy and dilation in adolescent ice hockey players evaluated with echocardiography

Computerized echocardiography at rest was used to follow up the dynamics of left heart enlargement in adolescent ice hockey players aged 11 to 15 years. The first year of strength‐endurance training did not lead to any remarkable change of echocardiographic parameters of the left heart ventricular size. A slight tendency to left ventricular hypertrophy appeared after 2 years of training, becoming more marked and significant after the third and fourth years of training. First signs of dilation of the left ventricle were observed after 3 year of training, but it was only after the fourth year of training that there appeared significant evidence. The measured absolute value and the value relative to anthropometric parameters generally produced the same results with a slightly different significance between specifically compared variables. A measurable physiologic enlargement of the heart following regular ice hockey training may be expected in adolescent boys after 3 to 4 years of training.