Pathogenetic mechanisms of atherosclerosis development in athletes

Abstract

Aim of the study was to reveal the relationship between the performance of high-intensity physical activity and the development of endothelial dysfunction in people involved in professional sports. The development of endothelial dysfunction as one of the main markers of atherosclerotic damage to the vascular wall in athletes is an urgent problem in modern medicine in connection with the asymptomatic course and unpredictability of the development of cardiovascular complications. Material and methods. The publications on the topic of the scientific review from 2010 to 2020 were analyzed. The electronic databases of the Google Academy (https://scholar.google.ru/), UpToDate (www.uptodate.com), Oxford Medicine Online (https://oxfordmedicine.com/), PubMed (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/), scientific electronic library «Cyberleninka» and foreign journals Springer (https://www.springer.com/gp), Journal of the American College of Cardiology (https://imaging.onlinejacc.org/). Results. Recent foreign and domestic studies show a relatively high relationship between the level of physical activity and the development of coronary atherosclerosis in professional athletes. Conclusion. When performing prolonged and excessive physical exertion, trained athletes often experience oxidative stress, the presence of which causes the development of endothelial dysfunction, which from modern positions is a key link in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Further study of the mechanism of atherogenesis will contribute to the use of new diagnostic methods in predicting the disease at an early stage and treating it, thus preserving the health of an athlete.

Keywords

• coronary atherosclerosis
• high-intensity exercise
• sudden death