Ethnicity-related variations of left ventricular remodeling in adolescent amateur football players

Adult and adolescent, elite black athletes display - as compared with white counterparts - excessively increased left ventricle (LV) wall thicknesses (LVWT), mass (LVM), and relative wall thickness (RWT). To investigate such ethnicity-related differences in non-professional adolescent athletes, 138 male, amateur football players [age 14.0 ± 1.7 years, 42 West-African blacks (BA) and 96 Italian whites (WA)], underwent an echocardiographic study of LV diameters, LVWT, maximal wall thickness (MWT), LVM, and RWT as remodelling indexes. BA, vs. WA, exhibited: greater thicknesses of septum and posterior wall; higher MWT (10.3 ± 1.7 mm vs. 8.8 ± 1.1); and higher LVM (117 ± 27 gr/m2 vs. 101 ± 20) and RWT (0.44 ± 0.07 vs. 0.35 ± 0.04). Age, systolic blood pressure, body mass index, and ethnicity predicted MWT and LVM, while ethnicity was the sole strong predictor of RWT. The greater MWT, LVWT, and LVM of 14 years-old, amateur-level BA vs. WA, indicates that ethnicity substantially affects LV structure in adolescent, non-professional athletes. In contrast with MWT and LVM, elevated RWT was predicted by black ethnicity only. We suggest that concentric-type LV remodelling is a peculiar LV phenotype in adolescent African athletes.