Athlete’s heart in children and adolescents

Abstract

Physical activity through play is a form of expression and development for children and it is defined as any movement produced by skeletal muscles that results in energy expenditure. Physical Exercise is a planned physical activity, structured within a sporting and social context, with an aim to maintain physical conditioning. A competitive athlete is someone who participates in an organized team or individual sport that requires systematic training and regular competitions aimed at a goal, namely a prize or excellence in the sport. There are important physiological particularities in relation to movement and physical conditioning in this stage of the human being’s physical growth and development, with an impact on the cardiovascular system. Currently it is considered that all athletes, regardless of the type of sport practiced, develop a combination of cardiac alterations that simultaneously include dilation and increased thickness of the left ventricular wall. The difference in the intensity of these alterations vary according to factors such as the type of sport practiced, gender, age and body surface area of the athlete. In the adolescent population, especially athletes, it is extremely important to differentiate echocardiographic alterations resulting from intense training with those ones that show some type of cardiac pathology.