Enter Your Email Address to Receive a
Copy of MedicExhange Member Demograhpics

When compared the athletes with 23 control patients, calcium plaque volume was 169 mm3 compared with 274 mm3 for the elite runners (P=0.028), the researchers reported at the ACC meeting.

A group of elite long-distance runners had less body fat, better lipid profiles, and better heart rates than people being tested for cardiac disease, but, paradoxically, the runners had more calcified plaque in their heart arteries, according to a study reported here.

Investigators performed computed tomography angiography on 25 people who had run at least one marathon a year since 1985, according to senior author Robert Schwartz, MD, of the Minneapolis Heart Institute and Foundation. They compared the athletes with 23 control patients who were undergoing the same scan for symptomatic or suspected heart abnormalities.

In controls, the calcium plaque volume was 169 mm3 compared with 274 mm3 for the elite runners (P=0.028), the researchers reported at the American College of Cardiology meeting. The runners also had a higher calcium score and higher noncalcified plaque volume, although those differences did not reach statistical significance.

The participants underwent 64-slice computed tomography angiography and were compared for blood pressure, heart rate, and serum lipids. The scan data were analyzed using commercial plaque characterization software for calcified and noncalcified plaque and calcium score.

Source: ACC