부산대학교 도서관

This article focuses on distinguishing hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) from athlete's heart. Interest in athletic field deaths has also accelerated because of the recognition that these catastrophic events are probably more common than previously thought, occur in young people of both sexes and under-served minorities, and that the responsible but usually unsuspected structural cardiovascular diseases are often clinically identifiable--including by pre-participation screening. An algorithm for differential diagnosis between HCM and extreme physiologic hypertrophy of athlete's heart has evolved, with particular relevance to trained athletes in whom left ventricular wall thickness falls into a "grey zone" of overlap between these clinical scenarios--that is, ventricular septal thickness of 13-15 mm present in 2% of highly trained male athletes. The most definitive resolution of this important differential diagnosis can come from genetic testing.