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- Andersson, Lars-Göran, et al.
(author)
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Thallium-201 Myocardial Imaging at Rest in Male Orienteers and Other Endurance Athletes
- 2001
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In: Upsala Journal of Medical Sciences. - : Uppsala Medical Society. - 0300-9734 .- 2000-1967. ; 106:1, s. 59-66
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- During the period 1979 to 1992, 16 sudden unexpected cardiac deaths were known to have occurred in young Swedish orienteers. Autopsy indicated myocarditis to be the most frequent finding, most often combined with extensive myocardial fibrosis. The aim of the present investigation was to explore whether young male orienteers show a higher frequency than other young elite endurance athletes (controls) in the occurrence of Thallium-201 myocardial perfusion defects at rest, suggestive of fibrosis evoked by myocarditis. Thallium-201 perfusion abnormalities at rest were more frequently found in the controls than in the orienteers (26% vs. 12%, p=0.03). Uneven Tl-201 perfusion was associated with left ventricular mass (r=0.32, r=0.24, p<0.01, p=0.02) and body weight (r=0.30, r=0.31, p<0.01, p=0.03) in orienteers and controls, respectively. Echocardiographic left ventricular wall motion abnormalities were found in 11 athletes (9 orienteers and 2 controls) but only two displayed an abnormal Thallium-201 perfusion scan at rest. Perfusion abnormalities at rest did not occur more frequently in the orienteers but were commonly found in both groups of apparently healthy athletes making it futile to discern abnormals from normals. Thallium-201 perfusion aberrations were not associated with left ventricular wall motion abnormalities obtained by echocardiography.
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| 2. |
- Damm, S., et al.
(author)
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Wall motion abnormalities in male elite orienteers are aggravated by exercise
- 1999
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In: Clinical Physiology. - : Wiley. - 0144-5979 .- 1365-2281. ; 19:2, s. 121-126
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- During the period 1979-92, 16 (15 men and one woman) sudden unexpected cardiac deaths occurred among young Swedish orienteers. This finding indicated a sharp increase in the death rate of orienteers, and necropsy demonstrated that myocarditis was a common histopathological finding. Therefore, an extensive non-invasive cardiac investigation was performed. A total of 59 male élite orienteers (mean age 23 years) and 36 cross-country skiers and middle-distance runners (mean age 22 years), serving as controls, were examined by both echocardiography at rest and radionuclide ventriculography at rest and during exercise. Wall motion abnormalities were found in eight orienteers using echocardiography. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the group of orienteers with wall motion abnormalities found using echocardiography had a smaller increase in ejection fraction from rest to exercise using radionuclide ventriculography than the rest of the orienteers and the controls, indicating an aggravation of the wall motion abnormalities during exercise. There were no significant differences in the ejection fraction at rest between the groups. In the orienteers with wall motion abnormalities (group 1), 62% (five out of eight) had less than a 0.05 unit increase in left ventricular ejection fraction compared with 27% (14 out of 51) of the remaining orienteers (group 2) and 19% (7 out of 36) of the controls (group 3). A comparison of athletes in group 1 with those in groups 2 and 3 combined revealed a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05). The divergent response in left ventricular ejection fraction during exercise suggests an aggravation of the wall motion abnormalities with exercise. Both the echocardiographic and the radionuclide ventriculographic findings indicate that the orienteers in group 1 had concealed left ventricular damage.
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| 4. |
- Holmberg, Martin, et al.
(author)
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Evaluation of human seroreactivity to Bartonella species in Sweden
- 1999
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In: Journal of Clinical Microbiology. - 0095-1137 .- 1098-660X. ; 37:5, s. 1381-1384
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Among the species that compose the expanding genus Bartonella, thus far only B. henselae and B. quintana have reportedly been isolated from humans in Europe. To evaluate the prevalence of Bartonella infection in Sweden,we conducted a retrospective serological examination of 126 human serum samples. These samples were analyzed for antibodies to B. henselae, B. quintana, and B. elizabethae, Serum samples from 100 blood donors, who spanned the ages of 20 to 60 and had no apparent clinical signs of illness, were also studied as a control group. An immunoglobulin G indirect fluorescence antibody assay revealed 4 and 8.3% Bartonella positivity rates for the blood donor and patient group, respectively, when a cutoff titer of greater than or equal to 64 was chosen. Among the blood donors, four were seropositive to B, elizabethae; one of these also had concordant positive titer to B. henselae, In the patient group, 14 serum samples were positive against Bartonella spp, These serum specimens represented nine patients. In three of these seropositive patients, paired serum samples displayed a fourfold increase in antibody titer to at least one of the three antigens, These three patients are discussed. In this report we also present a case study of a 60-year-old Swedish male with fatal myocarditis, Postmortem serological analysis revealed a high titer against B. elizabethae, PCR and nucleotide sequencing of the myocardial tissue from this patient, and of Liver tissue from one of the other three patients, showed sequences similar to B. quintana, The age, geographical origin, animal contacts, and serological response pattern to the different Bartonella antigens differed among the four patients. This study substantiates the presence of Bartonella spp, in Sweden, documents the seroreactivity to three Bartonella antigens in Swedish patients, and reports the first two cases of B. quintana-like infections in Sweden.
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| 10. |
- Henriksen, Egil, et al.
(author)
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An echocardiographic study comparing male Swedish elite orienteers with other elite endurance athletes
- 1997
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In: American Journal of Cardiology. - 0002-9149 .- 1879-1913. ; 79:4, s. 521-524
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Between 1979 and 1992, there were 16 known cases of sudden unexpected cardiac death among young Swedish orienteers, whose autopsies showed myocarditis to be a common finding. Therefore, 96 elite orienteers and 47 controls underwent echocardiography, showing left ventricular wall motion abnormalities in 9% of the orienteers compared with 4% in the controls.
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