Can intense endurance exercise cause myocardial damage and fibrosis?

Abstract

There has been long-standing debate as to whether intense endurance exercise provokes acute myocardial damage and whether cardiac remodeling associated with long-standing endurance training is entirely physiological. Despite the lack of concrete evidence on either side, the potential for serious clinical consequences, including life-threatening arrhythmias, elevates the importance of the debate. Studies have taught us that elite athletes enjoy excellent health, and athletic animal models consistently show up-regulation of molecular pathways, which are free of fibrosis and entirely different from those induced through pathological cardiac loading. On the other hand, extreme exercise has been ..