In the past myocarditis has been suggested as a possible cause of repolarization abnormalities
in sportsmen, but, to our knowledge, no direct in-vivo demonstration of this relationship
has so far been found. We report the cases of three professional athletes with repolarization
changes at rest and/or during exercise and mild segmental wall motion anomalies in
the left ventricle on echocardiography, in whom myocarditis was diagnosed by non-invasive
and invasive clinical investigations, including endomyocardial biopsy. We think that
probably the frequency with which myocarditis is responsible for electrocardiographic
and echocardiographic abnormalities in athletes has so far been underestimated, and
that caution must be employed when interpreting minor segmental wall motion abnormalities
on resting and exercise echocardiograms in trained subjects as being due to athlete's
hart, especially when they present with repolarization changes.
Key words
Athlete's heart - myocarditis - ventricular repolarization abnormalities
