LEFT VENTRICULAR CONCENTRIC REMODELLING AND FAMILY HISTORY OF HYPERTENSION IN ADOLESCENT SOCCER PLAYERS

Abstract Body : The abstract should not exceed 320 words and 2600 characters. Objective: A family history of hypertension (F+) is associated in young normotensives to left ventricle (LV) concentric remodelling with normal LV mass (LVM). Our aim was to study this relationship in the adolescent age. Design and method: Fifty-nine normotensive, male, caucasian, adolescent soccer players (age 14±2, 12 to 17) participated in the study. Thirty of them (F +) had at least one hypertensive parent or grand-parent, while no family history was detected in the remaining 29 (F-). In both groups, with similar body weight, height, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR) and level of physical training, echocardiography was performed to measure LV diameters, volumes, thicknesses and mass. The relative wall thickness [RWT, the ratio of Septum diastolic thickness (SWT) + Posterior wall diastolic thickness (PWT) to the End-diastolic diameter (LVDd)], was used as an estimate of LV remodelling. Results (table): Similar results were obtained in F+ and F- for LVM, diameters, volumes and thicknesses, except for a greater (p =0,03) PWT and RWT (p = 0,015) in F+. Multiple regression analysis, performed considering RWT as the dependent variable and age, BMI, LVM, HR, BP, and F+ or F- as the independent variables, showed that RWT only was independently associated to a hypertensive family history (p=0,013). In addition, Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that RWT discriminated F+ from F- (cut-off 0,35, sensitivity 76,6%, specificity 65,5%). Conclusions: LV response to a stimulus such as sport exercise seems to be affected, even in the adolescent age, by a family history of hypertension, with a significant trend to a concentric pattern of remodelling in F+ adolescent soccer players, as suggested by the elevated RWT. In addition, as the only independent predictor of RWT was a family history of hypertension, an early concentric remodelling in adolescent athletes could be assumed as a cardiac phenotype related to the genetic predisposition to hypertension.