CARDIOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AT THE SIXTH BRITISH EMPIRE AND COMMONWEALTH GAMES

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Abstract
The RLF plane ecg and lead field spatial vcg findings for 60 male international-class athletes have been compared with those from 47 untrained students. The mean heart rate for the athletes as a whole (62) was lower than that for the students by 8 beats a minute, with the long-distance competitors showing the greatest difference (mean: 60). The only statistical difference in time intervals was that the mean T complex time was increased by 0.03 sec. in the athletes, while the ratio Q-T/R-R showed a tendency to diminish. The planar QRS loops of the trained subjects showed generally increased net anterior electrical activity, and in about one-third of cases the T loop was of a peculiar crescentic shape. Quantitative vectorial and planar loop analyses indicated that 5 of the 60 athletes differed significantly from the remainder and they were considered separately. This proportion was smaller than the corresponding incidence of aberrant individuals in the student group. Vector angle analysis of the RLF and lead field frontal planes demonstrated that there is no difference between the mean values for students and athletes and that the RLF and true frontal planes bear the same geometrical relations in the two groups. The major lead field vector angle difference was that the mean spatial QRS-T angle in the athletes was decreased by 26[degree] due, predominantly, to a less posterior orientation of the QRS vector, with T relatively unchanged. The spatial magnitude of T was, however, considerably greater in the athletes in consequence of the longer duration of the T complex. These findings have been discussed as evidence of increased vagal activity and physiological right ventricular hypertrophy in the trained subject in relation to the physical endurance entailed in his competitive agent.