SPORT CARDIOVASCULAR RESEARCH PROGRAM
Focused on sport cardiology: cardiovascular research, preparticipation screening, clinical care and original research of cardiovascular (mal) adaptations in South African athletes.
Learn MoreMission Statements
To determine normal electrocardiographic features of South African strength and endurance athletes and advance knowledge of chronic (patho)physiological electrocardiographic changes.
To advance knowledge of acute and long-term cardiovascular (mal)adaptations secondary to chronic vigorous endurance exercise in master athletes.
To advance screening of athletes for risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes.
Achieving these goals through local and international collaboration
Who Is An Athlete?
The term “athlete” comes from the word “athlos”, which means “achievement”
Competitive Athletes
Individuals engaged in exercise and training on a regular basis and participating in official sports competition, at any level
Recreational Athletes
Individuals engaged in recreational or open sport
Elite & Professional athletes
Constitute a subgroup within competitive athletes who achieve athletic excellence and usually compete at a international level, earning a living out of their sport participation
Heart Facts
- size of a human fist
- 5 billion cells
- functions 8 weeks after conception
- pumps, generates electricity, produces natriuretic hormone
- 100 000 contractions daily/ 3 billion cycles over life time
- 250-350 grams
- pumps 5-30 liters/minute = > 7500 liters/daily
- 100 000 km of blood vessels
- circulation time approx. 20 sec
- in SA 5 heart attacks/hr, 10 strokes/hr, 10 deaths/hr
The heart and blood vessels generally adapt to allow for improved physical performance.
Regular moderate intensity exercise improves well being and prolongs life.
Inappropriate cardiovascular changes may impair performance and increase the risk of heart arrhythmias.
Recent research suggests that sustained, vigorous endurance exercise may result in cardiovascular abnormalities in predisposed athletes.
Adaptations Of The Athletic Heart Are Determined By:
Field Research
We acquired a fully equipped mobile Unit which allows us to evaluate athletes at events. We screen for cardiovascular conditions which may pose a risk for Sudden Cardiac Death and study the acute and long-term cardiovascular changes in endurance athletes.
Para-Athlete Research
Sport CRP provides for all athletic disciplines, including para-athletes
Manuscript
We’re excited to share the publication of our manuscript “Left atrial function and fibrosis in lifelong endurance athletes: a cardiac magnetic resonance imaging study” in the International Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging, the initial result of our ongoing Athlete Heart Study, which aims to unravel the causes of atrial arrhythmias in South African endurance athletes.
Podcasts
Dr. Benjamin Levine: How Exercise Prevents & Reverses Heart Aging
Everyone has to get old sometime, but what if, at least for some aspects of aging, we didn’t have to? Imagine if the loss of heart size and the stiffness that often comes with aging could be reversed, even well into late middle-age.
The heart and exercise: Should middle-aged men pull on lycra? With Dr Andre La Gerche
Dr Glenn McConell chats with Associate Professor Andre La Gerche a world leading Sports Cardiologist from St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia. Andre is a very big advocate of exercise and recently won the over 50 category at the Melbourne Marathon
Exercise and sports cardiology with Professor Paul D. Thompson
Dr Glenn McConell chats with Professor Paul D. Thompson who is Chief of Cardiology, Emeritus at Hartford Hospital, Hartford, CT and Professor of Medicine, Emeritus at the University of Connecticut.
Dr. Martin Gibala: The Science of Vigorous Exercise — From VO2 Max to Time Efficiency of HIIT
Dr. Martin Gibala is a muscle physiologist, professor, and kinesiology department chair at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He is best known for pioneering research on the health benefits of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and his profound understanding of HIIT’s physiological mechanisms
Athletes, Astronauts, and Aging: The Adaptive Range of Human Performance
Benjamin Levine, MD, is a renowned sports cardiologist @UTSWMed and the founder and Director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine (IEEM) at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.