Introduction:

The adaptation of the human heart to physical conditioning has been a medical and scientific topic of interest where cardiac remodeling involving changes in size, form, thickness of the walls and ventricular mass responds to the type of physical activity.

Objective:

To determine the anatomical modifications of the left ventricle in high performance male and female canoeing and kayaking athletes.

Material and methods:

A prospective, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in high performance canoeing athletes that attended the Instituto de Medicina del Deporte during the special training in view of the preparation for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, 2016. The sample was composed of 20 athletes that fulfilled the established inclusion criteria. The results of the different echocardiographic parameters were collected and analyzed in order to check whether there were anatomical modifications of the left ventricle (AMLV). Differential and descriptive statistics were used.

Results:

The average age was 20, 9 ± 1, 18 years, the male sex predominated in the study (65%), kayak (60 %) and velocity (55%) were the predominant sports disciplines and competitive modalities, respectively. Concentric hypertrophy in both sexes (65%), sporting age of 10 years or less (60%), and increase in relative wall thickness (65%) were frequent; the highest AKS index was found in eccentric hypertrophy (1,3%) and predominant fat percentage was observed in concentric hypertrophy (7,9%).

Conclusions:

The relative thickness of the ventricular wall had a significant relationship with the competitive modalities.

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