Table 1.
Summary of studies that compared the ventricular arrhythmic burden at 24-hour ambulatory ECG monitoring in apparently healthy athletes and sedentary controls
| Reference | Athletes/Controls (n) | Type of athletes | Prevalence of VAs | Imaging for underlying cardiac disease |
| Viitasalo et al 18 | 35/35 | Young endurance (23±6 years). | Rare isolated PVBs: 29% of athletes and 31% of controls (p=0.79). Frequent PVBs or complex VA: 6% of athletes and 11% of controls (p=0.67). |
N/A. |
| Viitasalo et al
19
|
35/35 | Adolescent athletes (14–16 years). | ≥1 PVB: 60% of athletes and 57% of controls (p=0.80). | N/A. |
| Talan et al 17 | 20/50 | Young marathon runners (19–29 years). | ≥1 PVB: 70% of athletes and 50% of controls (p=0.13). >50 PVBs or ≥1 complex VA: 10% of athletes and 6% of controls (p=1.0). |
N/A. |
| Pilcher et al 16 | 80/0 | Young and middle-aged runners (mean 30 years old). | ≥1 PVB: 50% of athletes. >50 PVBs: 7.5% of athletes. Complex VA: 4% of athletes. |
N/A. |
| Palatini et al 14 | 40/40 | Young endurance athletes (20±7 years). |
≥1 PVB: 70% of athletes and 55% of controls (p=0.17). >30 PVBs or complex VA: 13% of athletes and 0% of controls (p=0.12). |
Echocardiography in all. |
| Bjørnstad et al 15 | 60/30 | Young athletes. | No differences between cases and controls in rare PVBs. No complex forms. |
N/A. |
| Zorzi et al 20 | 288/144 | Young competitive athletes engaged in ≥6 hours of sports per week (16–35 years). | ≥1 PVB: 59% of athletes and 40% of controls (p<0.001). ≥1 complex VA: 6% of athletes and 8% of controls (p=1.0). >10 PVBs or ≥1 complex VA (primary endpoint): 10% of athletes and 11% of controls (p=0.62). |
Echocardiography if ≥10 isolated PVBs or ≥1 complex VA. CMR if ≥500 PVBs, complex VA and/or exercise-induced PVBs. |
| Zorzi et al 21 | 134/134 | Middle-aged endurance athletes engaged in ≥6 hours of sports per week (30–60 years). | ≥1 PVB: 79% of athletes and 73% of controls (p=0.25). ≥1 complex VA: 10% of athletes and 9% of controls (p=0.8). >500 PVBs: 7% of athletes and 5% of controls p=0.30). >10 PVBs or ≥1 complex VA (primary endpoint): 26% of athletes and 23% of controls (p=0.53). |
Exercise testing and echocardiography in all. |
Complex VAs included couplets, triplets or non-sustained ventricular tachycardia.
CMR, cardiac magnetic resonance; N/A, not available; PVBs, premature ventricular beats; VA, ventricular arrhythmias.