Left Ventricular Dilatation in Athletes With Common Colds; a Cardio-vascular MRI Study

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging will be used to assess the impact of a common colds and physical training in high-performing athletes. Healthy individuals from the general public will serve as a comparison group. CMR has previously been shown to accurately assess cardiac function, edema, inflammation, and injury.

Athletes competing at National level and Developmental Canadian teams will be prospectively recruited. All participants will have CMR scans at low and high intensity training. Participants will be re-scanned immediately after clinical evidence of a common cold, as determined by respiratory and flu-like symptoms. After 4 weeks, a follow-up CMR scan will be performed. On the day of each CMR scan, electrocardiograms and blood samples will be drawn from each participant. Blood samples will provide markers of systemic inflammation, such as leukocyte counts. At each CMR scan, athletes will be asked to describe there recent history of physical exertion in questionnaires, which will reflect the degree of physical exertion performed.

Image analysis: CMR parameters that serve as surrogate markers for myocardial inflammation will be assessed. Specifically, they include STIR (edema), early enhancement (inflammation), and late enhancement (fibrosis). The presence of 2 of these parameters will indicate the presence of myocardial inflammation. Qualitative and quantitative analysis will be performed on images obtained from CMR scans, and will be assessed offline using CMR42 (Circle International, Calgary) software. Standard methods of assessing edema, inflammation, and fibrosis will be implemented. Standard left ventricular function volume analysis techniques will be implemented to assess left ventricular dilatation.