Kennedy A
Department of Histopathology, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield.
Br J Sports Med. 1997 Dec;31(4):328-31. doi: 10.1136/bjsm.31.4.328.
Regular cyclists have been found to have a lower incidence of coronary events (CHD) than the general public. Non-invasive studies have found that competitive cyclists develop a cardiac hypertrophy that is physiological and reversible.
To obtain pathological support for these observations, the postmortem findings of 32 cyclists killed in accidents have been compared with those in a control group of 32 other road traffic accidents, which were matched with the cyclists by sex, age, and year of death.
Large myocardial scars and complete blockage of a coronary artery were only found in the controls; serious stenoses of coronary arteries (> 50%) were found in eight controls but in only one of the cyclists. Of the cyclists, 25 had normal coronary arteries as compared with 14 of the controls. The mean age of the cyclists with evidence of CHD was greater than that of similarly affected controls. The heart weights of the two groups were almost the same but heart weight varied with the degree of CHD. The heart weight of the healthy cyclists (389 g) was greater than that of the healthy controls (371 g) but this was not statistically significant.
The results are in keeping with the concept that regular exercise provides some protection from the development of CHD and that cycling may be a valuable form of exercise in this respect. This may be of importance as the number of physically active occupations declines.
研究发现，经常骑自行车的人冠心病（CHD）的发病率低于普通人群。非侵入性研究发现，竞技自行车运动员会出现生理性且可逆的心脏肥大。
为了获得这些观察结果的病理学支持，将32名在事故中丧生的自行车骑行者的尸检结果与32名其他道路交通事故对照组的结果进行了比较，后者在性别、年龄和死亡年份上与自行车骑行者相匹配。
仅在对照组中发现大面积心肌瘢痕和冠状动脉完全阻塞；8名对照组患者发现冠状动脉严重狭窄（>50%），而自行车骑行者中只有1人出现这种情况。自行车骑行者中，25人冠状动脉正常，而对照组中这一数字为14人。有CHD证据的自行车骑行者的平均年龄大于同样受影响的对照组。两组的心脏重量几乎相同，但心脏重量随CHD程度而变化。健康自行车骑行者的心脏重量（389克）大于健康对照组（371克），但这在统计学上无显著差异。
结果符合以下概念，即经常锻炼可为CHD的发展提供一定保护，并且在这方面骑自行车可能是一种有价值的锻炼方式。随着体力劳动职业数量的减少，这一点可能很重要。
