Arrhythmias & electrophysiologyCohort study
The timing and relationship of ventricular arrhythmia with exercise patterns in veteran male endurance athletes
- Prospective cohort study
Authors' conclusion
A significant proportion of highly trained male veteran athletes developed ventricular arrhythmia which was predominantly NSVT and was strongly associated with myocardial fibrosis. Acute exercise exposure was associated with an increased risk of developing ventricular arrhythmia, but chronic exercise load was not.
Study context
- Population
- Healthy male endurance athletes (cyclists/triathletes) aged ≥50 y, ≥10 h/week exercise for ≥15 y, with cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and implantable loop recorder
- Participants
- 106 athletes
- Exposure
- Exercise vs non-exercise periods; athletes with vs without ventricular arrhythmia
- With ventricular arrhythmian = 25
- Outcome
- Incidence and timing of ventricular arrhythmia (VT, non-sustained VT) on implantable loop recorder (ILR) in relation to exercise training patterns
- Follow-up
- Median 796 days
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Ventricular arrhythmia on ILR
- Athletes with ventricular arrhythmia
- 25 (23.5%)
- Ventricular arrhythmia events
- 55
- Ventricular tachycardia (VT) events
- 3 (5.5%)
- Non-sustained VT (NSVT) events
- 52 (94.5%)
- Exercise-related ventricular arrhythmia incidence
- 0.4/1000 h of exercise
- Non-exercise-related ventricular arrhythmia incidence
- 0.01/1000 h of non-exercise
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Myocardial fibrosis prevalence
P < 001
Original publication
The timing and relationship of ventricular arrhythmia with exercise patterns in veteran male endurance athletes. Eur J Prev Cardiol. Published 12 January 2026. doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwag021
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it