Childhood Exercise May Benefit Diastolic Function in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Exercise training during childhood and adolescence is associated with favorable diastolic function later in life both in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and in genotype-positive patients without LVH, according to study results published in the International Journal of Cardiology.

“Our results support individualized recommendation regarding exercise in young individuals with a genetic disposition for HCM, but further prospective and translational studies are needed to provide a causal relationship between exercise and cardiac function in such individuals,” wrote researchers.

The retrospective, cross-sectional study included 187 patients in Norway with HCM or an HCM-causative genotype. Researchers combined clinical and echocardiographic data with history of exercise training before 20 years of age to assess associations with left ventricular diastolic parameters later in life.

Exercise during childhood and adolescence correlated with improved diastolic function after adjustment for age and hypertrophy, reported researchers. The association was apparent in both patients with an HCM phenotype and in individuals with an HCM-causative genotype without left ventricular hypertrophy.

The study identified no correlation between exercise and ventricular arrhythmias.

“In our study, the favorable effects of exercise training during childhood and adolescence were present in both phenotype subgroups,” wrote researchers. “Phenotype-negative individuals had a better diastolic function than HCM LVH+, but the fact that the favorable effects were also seen in HCM LVH+ is a strong argument that the beneficial effects are not restricted to patients who do not develop a phenotype.”

Reference:
Andreassen K, Dejgaard LA, Lie Ø, et al. Exercise training during childhood and adolescence is associated with favorable diastolic function in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Int J Cardiol. 2022 Published online June 15, 2022. doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2022.06.042.