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A study called the Ventoux study is being run by the University of Leeds and Leeds Teaching Hospitals.
Lifelong participation in endurance sport leads to many health benefits and increased longevity. However, a proportion of athletes develop scarring of the heart that might be associated with potentially life-threatening heart rhythms.
In this study, they are looking at the structure and function of the hearts of endurance veteran athletes and correlating this with their heart rhythm. This research uses cardiac MRI to visualise the heart in detail before implanting an injectable loop recorder to continuously monitor the heart rhythm. Research has already shown that athletes develop changes in the structure of the heart, most notably an increase in heart muscle mass and in some cases scarring. Whilst heart scarring is known to cause dangerous heart rhythms in certain cardiac conditions, it is unknown whether this heart scarring leads to dangerous heart rhythms in healthy athletes.
The aim is to better understand whether this heart scarring leads to dangerous heart rhythms in athletes. Improving our knowledge in this area will help identify at risk individuals and inform safe participation in competitive sport into later adulthood along with general exercise recommendations. The findings will also help guide future research.
The target research group is male and train for more than 10 hours a week for over 15 years and compete regularly in cycling or triathlon and must be over 50 years of age. Previous studies have shown that males engaging in these sports along with longer training and racing distances lead to the greatest
adaptations in the heart. The size of the research group is capped at just over 100 and has now been
advertised nationally.
Initially it was targeted towards members of the VTTA (Veteran Time Trialling Association). The criteria were quite hard to meet and so the search is being widened.
The study requires two visits to the Leeds General Infirmary (UK) unless the visitor resides a long way away in which case all the tasks can combined into one visit. It is seen as quite onerous to do everything in one day though, which I can understand.
On my first visit I had blood tests taken, an ECG scan and a MRI scan. The blood tests were OK and I got my cholesterol numbers back later on as I am on statins. I was also injected with a liquid of some form to make the heartbeat faster. The MRI scan was rather daunting because it lasts a long time, over an
hour for me but even longer for others. You cannot zone out as you must keep on breathing hard and then easy to command. You are very trapped and after more than a hour had passed (I had a radio playing on earphones and I knew we had heard the news on the hour twice) I was getting to feel a bit anxious. Once that was over I had the ECG scan which took only a few minutes. The visit lasted about 2 hours.
On the second day I had the heart monitoring implant inserted. This required local anaesthetic and a small incision of about 4cm making in my chest and the device was pushed in. Then it was stitched and glued. Once everything was working, I had to do a ramp test on an Wattbike. I was quite wary of this as I
know how hard they can be. However, this was just a 7 step test which started for me at 180 watts and increased by 20 watts every minute. I didn’t get anywhere near max heartrate but that is not the intention. The aim is to see how quickly your heart rises and falls.
The implant can be seen under the skin and even moves around slightly, which is a bit disconcerting.
The obvious question is ‘why did I have it done?’. I could say out of the goodness of my heart (pun intended) but I had a more altruistic thought. I am adopted and have no knowledge of any hereditary issues and I saw it as a good opportunity to get a full-blown MRI, and ECG and an ongoing monitor along with review in case anything did happen. I was fine, which is good news. However I know that two athletes have already had arrythmia issues picked up and another was discovered to have a heart that stopped beating for 5 seconds at a time and is now having a pace maker fitted.
I have the option to have the implant removed after two years or when the battery fails after about five years. In the meantime my data is being uploadd nightly and I and my doctor will be contacted if any abnormality occurs.
I am not sure I should share the details of the consultant in charge of the research until I have his approval but if anyone in the UK meets the criteria and is interested please contact me and I will put you in touch.
After publishing this post I was sent a link to this article on the research project. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-61435727
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