Atrial Function and Supraventricular Arrhythmia of the Veteran Athlete.

Supraventricular arrhythmias (including atrial fibrillation) are the most common arrhythmias of the veteran athlete and have a major impact in terms of morbidity and mortality. Although moderate sports practice has been shown to decrease the occurrence of these arrhythmias, it has also been shown that very intense athletic activity is associated with an increased risk of developing atrial fibrillation. The pathophysiological mechanism is not clearly understood. However, it has already been shown that intensive sports practice leads to electrical and morphological atrial remodeling, which could be the cause of the occurrence of supraventricular arrhythmias for these athletes. For sedentary patients, two major tools predict the risk of the onset of supraventricular arrhythmia: the electrocardiogram (ECG) and transthoracic echocardiography (ETT), particularly with the study of atrial function by the analysis of myocardial deformities.

No studies have tested these two tools for the evaluation of atrial remodeling of the veteran athlete to predict which ones are at risk of developing supraventricular arrhythmias. However, the identification of predictive factors would make it possible to identify at-risk athletes and thus provide them with adapted sporting practice advice and personalized follow-up. The aim of the study is to evaluate the relationship between atrial remodeling assessed by ECG and ETT with the occurrence of supraventricular arrhythmia by comparing an athlete group with supraventricular arrhythmia with a control group of healthy athletes.