OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to evaluate ethnic differences in left ventricular (LV) remodeling between highly-trained athletes of African/Afro-Caribbean (black) and Caucasian (white) athletes. BACKGROUND The upper limits of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) are established in white athletes and aid the differentiation of physiologic LVH from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Ho...

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of physical exercise on seminal parameters of male athletes with varicocele. Sixty healthy male volunteers (athletes and non-athletes, n = 30 + 30) and 60 volunteers affected by varicocele (athletes and non-athletes, n = 30 + 30) were randomly selected for a clinical study. All subjects provided at least two semen samples for routine mi...

The aim of this study was to investigate the dietary regimens reported by athletes competing at a major international competition and report whether these were based on nutrient composition, religious beliefs, cultural eating style, food intolerance or avoidance of certain ingredients. A questionnaire was randomly distributed to 351 athletes in the main dining hall of the athletes' village over...

Post-activation potentiation (PAP) is a phenomenon in which the power output of a muscle is immediately enhanced after heavy resistance exercise. Whereas the majority of PAP research has examined males, minimal research exists as to how female athletes respond. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the acute PAP response of back squats on static squat jump (SSJ) performance am...

Many athletes train in a constant state of pain or injury while meeting the demands of an elite level program. It is hypothesized that the emotional distress experienced by athletes with chronic injuries is not inconsequential. A self-report battery, the Impact of Event Scale, was administered to 280 inter-collegiate athletes at a division I institution in an attempt to examine their response t...

The purpose of this study was to assess the nutrition knowledge and the factors determining this knowledge in Iranian college basketball and football athletes. By highlighting gaps in nutrition knowledge of these athletes, sport nutrition professionals may begin to address these gaps by educating athletes with a view toward minimizing injury and enhancing sport performance. Sixty-six basketball...

BACKGROUND An increasing number of sporting bodies report unacceptably high levels of false-positive ECGs when undertaking pre-participation cardiac screening. To address this issue, modified ECG interpretation criteria have become available for use within athletes. OBJECTIVE This study assessed the accuracy of the new 2014 'Refined Criteria' against the 2013 Seattle Criteria and the 2010 Eur...

Injury to the airway epithelium has been proposed as a key susceptibility factor for exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB). Our goals were to establish whether airway epithelial cell injury occurs during EIB in athletes and whether inhalation of warm humid air inhibits this injury. Twenty-one young male athletes (10 with a history of EIB) performed two 8-min exercise tests near maximal aer...

AIM To estimate the influence of intensive training on menstrual cycles in female athletes. METHOD The questionnaire was used to determine the time of menarche, and the prevalence of primary and secondary amenorrhea and dysmenorrhea in 72 active female athletes from Zagreb (10 volleyball players, 18 basketball players, 10 ballet dancers, and 34 runners) aged between 15 and 21. The control gro...