[Heart diagnosis using M-mode-echocardiography. Continuous registration of the left ventricular transversal internal diameter. III. Measurements on highly trained athletes (author's transl)].

"Relative Cross-sectional area Differences" (RCD) and "Relative Velocities of Contraction" (RVC) permit a differentiation between normal subjects and patients with different degrees of myocardial failure, as previously described. Important determinants of the parameters RCD and RVC are changed, if ventricular volume and stroke volume increase and heart rate decreases, as is commonly observed in athletes. Examinations were performed at rest and after exercise on 31 athletes and 33 untrained normal subjects. Ventricular volumes were clearly increased in athletes. RCD, however, which is an equivalent to the ejection fraction, showed only slight alterations with physical training. RVC was obviously not changed by athletic training. After exercise athletes showed a significant increase in RCD. In untrained subjects only small changes in RCD were observed. In conclusion, the results show that RCD and RVC can quantitatively assess the degree of myocardial failure in cases of left ventricular dilatation without having to take into account the patients' degree of physical training.