athlete's heart

ath·lete's heart

a loose designation for cardiac findings in healthy athletes that would be or could be abnormal in patients with disease, including atrioventricular blocks, left ventricular hypertrophy and, sometimes, benign arrhythmias and atrioventricular blocks.

Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

A heart typical of trained athletes characterised by an increased left ventricular diastolic volume and increased thickness of the left ventricular wall, as seen by 2-D echocardiography; arrhythmias seen in athletes’ hearts are usually benign and include sinus bradycardia, wandering pacemaker, cardiac blocks, nodal rhythm, atrial fibrillation, ST segment and T-wave changes, increased P wave amplitude, and right ventricular hypertrophy

Segen's Medical Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.

athlete's heart

Athletic heart syndrome Sports medicine A heart typical of trained athletes, and characterized by ↑ left ventricular diastolic volume and ↑ thickness of the left ventricular wall, as seen by 2-D echocardiography; arrhythmias seen in athletes' hearts are usually benign and include sinus bradycardia, wandering pacemaker, cardiac blocks, nodal rhythm, atrial fibrillation, ST segment and T-wave changes, ↑ P wave amplitude, right ventricular hypertrophy. See Sudden unexplained nocturnal death.

McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

ath·lete's heart

(ath'lēts hahrt)

Nonpathologic enlarged heart in athletes reflecting specific adaptation to prolonged training. Manifestations in response to resistance training are thickened left ventricular wall and concentric hypertrophy, and in response to endurance training include enlarged left ventricular cavity and eccentric hypertrophy.
See: hypertrophy

Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing © Farlex 2012