ORLANDO – College football linemen develop adverse cardiac structural and functional changes over the course of their freshman season that are not seen in teammates who play at other positions, Dr. Jeffrey Lin said in an interview at the American Heart Association scientific sessions.
He followed 30 Harvard University linemen and 57 players at other football positions through their 3-month fall freshman season by means of serial blood pressure measurements and 2-D echocardiography, including speckle tracking. During the course of that season, 90% of the linemen developed prehypertension or hypertension, 30% showed clear echocardiographic evidence of concentric left ventricular hypertrophy, and as a group they also developed a relative decrease in systolic function, with a reduction from baseline in global longitudinal strain by speckle tracking.
It’s concerning because these 18-year-old linemen are going to expose themselves to another 3 years of the stresses of year-round intensive training along with three more seasons of university-level football, noted Dr. Lin, a cardiac imaging fellow at Columbia University in New York.
These cardiac changes were not seen in non-linemen. They developed adaptive cardiac structural remodeling with eccentric hypertrophy and an increase in global longitudinal strain, which is characteristic of what’s been called the “athlete’s heart,” according to Dr. Lin.
Watch the video to learn what he thinks may be going on.