Exercise during childhood, adolescence improves diastolic function in HCM

Children and teens who engage in more physical exercise are more likely to have favourable left ventricular (LV) diastolic function in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), regardless of the presence of hypertrophy at the time of assessment, reports a recent study.

Researchers conducted a cross-sectional and retrospective analysis of 187 participants (mean age at examination 49 years, 52.4 percent men) who had HCM or harboured causative genotypes. The outcome was the impact of exercise, performed before 20 years of age, on clinical outcomes and LV diastolic parameters, as measured by echocardiography.

On average, participants had 123 hours of exercise per year during childhood and adolescence (age 7–20 years). Multiple linear regression found a significant correlation between log-transformed exercise with e’ (β, 0.11; p=0.049) and with the ratio of E to e’ (β, –0.229; p=0.002).

Similarly, log-transformed exercise during childhood and adolescence correlated significantly with end-diastolic volume (β, 0.275; p<0.001) and deceleration time (β, –0.15; p=0.037).

Of note, these interactions were present in patients with an HCM phenotype and in those who harboured causative genotypes but did not have hypertrophy at the time of examination. Moreover, none of the diastolic parameters were negatively affected by exercise.

“Our results support individualized recommendation regarding exercise in young individuals with a genetic disposition for HCM, but further prospective and translational studies are needed to provide a causal relationship between exercise and cardiac function in such individuals,” the researchers said.