Acute impact of an endurance race on cardiac function and biomarkers of myocardial injury in triathletes with and without myocardial fibrosis.

Aims The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of myocardial injury and cardiac dysfunction after an endurance race by biomarkers and cardiac magnetic resonance in triathletes with and without myocardial fibrosis. Methods and results Thirty asymptomatic male triathletes (45 ± 10 years) with over 10 training hours per week and 55 ± 8 ml/kg per minute maximal oxygen uptake during exercise testing were studied before (baseline) and 2.4 ± 1.1 hours post-race. Baseline cardiac magnetic resonance included cine, T1/T2, late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) and extracellular volume imaging. Post-race non-contrast cardiac magnetic resonance included cine and T1/T2 mapping. Non-ischaemic my…