Cross-sectional study
Cardiopulmonary physical fitness and tissue characterization through T1 and T2 mapping: new insights on athlete’s heart
- Cross-sectional study
Authors' conclusion
In this study, we demonstrate for the first time an association between myocardial tissue characteristics, assessed by mapping, and cardiopulmonary fitness, evaluated through CPET.
Study context
- Population
- Elite, healthy athletes undergoing pre-participation screening, with maximal cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) and non-contrast cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) (1.5T) ≤31 days apart
- Participants
- 125 athletes
- Outcome
- Associations between cardiorespiratory fitness (CPET) and cardiac remodelling on CMR, including T1 and T2 mapping
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Sex, sport type, LVMi, EDWT, VO2 max and peak lactate collectively explained variation in T1 values (multivariate analysis)
∼27%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Remodelling by sex and sport type
- Female athletes showed less pronounced cardiorespiratory and cardiac morphological remodelling than males
- Endurance athletes showed the highest cardiorespiratory fitness and most pronounced cardiac remodelling of the sport types
Original publication
Cardiopulmonary physical fitness and tissue characterization through T1 and T2 mapping: new insights on athlete’s heart. Eur J Prev Cardiol. Published 4 November 2025. doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwaf616
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it