Research on hereditary heart muscle disease offers new tools for sports advice

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is an inherited heart muscle disease in which the heart muscle is thickened. A thickening of the heart muscle can also occur from non-hereditary causes, such as long-standing high blood pressure or from elite sports. Heart muscle disease can lead to symptoms such as dizziness, road rage or sometimes sudden death from cardiac arrhythmias. In the Netherlands, it is estimated that about 1 in 500 adults has characteristics of this hereditary heart muscle disease.

Researchers from UMC Utrecht, Amsterdam UMC and UMC Groningen investigated the relationship between sports and the hereditary heart muscle disease HCM. They looked at whether practicing sports and what type of sport accelerates the development of the hereditary heart muscle disease or makes it worse. In doing so, they looked at mutations, hereditary predisposition errors, which are common in the Netherlands. They concluded that sports in general did not lead to life-threatening arrhythmias or severe thickening of the heart muscle and the earlier onset of the hereditary heart muscle disease. This includes high-static sports such as weightlifting, windsurfing and skiing.

Increased risk of ventricular arrhythmias only in high-intensity sports

The researchers did see more potentially life-threatening arrhythmias in the quarter most active people who played high-dynamic sports, such as soccer, field hockey and tennis. They had a three times increased risk of ventricular arrhythmias than people who did not play these high-dynamic sports. While the results show that sports are generally safe, these high-dynamic sports should be practiced with caution. “The results of our study provide new tools for personalized sports advice for people with hereditary heart muscle diseases,” said Peter van Tintelen, professor of cardiogenetics at UMC Utrecht University Medical Center. “This research helps provide tailored sports advice and prevent these people with hereditary heart muscle disease from unnecessarily stopping exercising.”

Collaborative research sports activities

For this study, 188 people with an average age of 43 years were interviewed about their sports activities since the age of ten. The study was initiated by the departments of Genetics and Cardiology of UMC Utrecht and conducted together with the departments of genetics/cardiology of Amsterdam UMC and UMC Groningen. The study was recently published in Circulation Genemics and Precision Medicine.