000057492 001__ 57492 000057492 005__ 20161117105554.0 000057492 0247_ $$2doi$$a10.1016/j.jcmg.2015.08.023 000057492 0248_ $$2sideral$$a96822 000057492 037__ $$aART-2016-96822 000057492 041__ $$aeng 000057492 100__ $$aSanchis-Gomar, F 000057492 245__ $$aLA Size in former elite athletes 000057492 260__ $$c2016 000057492 5060_ $$aAccess copy available to the general public$$fUnrestricted 000057492 5203_ $$aA recent meta-analysis by Iskandar et al. (1) nicely showed that endurance athletes have larger left atrial (LA) diameters compared with control subjects. Yet only 9 of 54 studies included in their analysis reported LA volume values corrected for body surface area (BSA). In fact, few studies have determined LA volume in young athletes, and, to the best of our knowledge, no study has reported this variable in older athletes. This is an important question given the growing debate about the potential deleterious effects of long-term strenuous endurance exercise on the human heart, notably the higher risk of atrial fibrillation (AF), a condition for which both atrial dilation and the normal aging process are thought to be potential causative mechanisms (2). Thus, we aimed to assess the long-term consequences of endurance exercise on LA volume in athletes who were highly competitive at younger ages and are still active. To this end, we compared BSA-corrected LA volumes determined with late gadolinium enhancement magnetic resonance imaging (LGE-MRI) in former elite endurance athletes and sedentary control subjects. 000057492 540__ $$9info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess$$aby-nc$$uhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/es/ 000057492 655_4 $$ainfo:eu-repo/semantics/letter$$vinfo:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersion 000057492 700__ $$0(orcid)0000-0001-8374-9081$$aGaratachea Vallejo, Nuria$$uUniversidad de Zaragoza 000057492 700__ $$aCatalán, P 000057492 700__ $$aLopez Ramon, Marta 000057492 700__ $$aLucia Mulas, Alejandro 000057492 700__ $$0(orcid)0000-0002-8170-9403$$aSerrano Ostáriz, Enrique Javier$$uUniversidad de Zaragoza 000057492 7102_ $$11006$$2245$$aUniversidad de Zaragoza$$bDepartamento de Fisiatría y Enfermería$$cEducación Física y Deportiva 000057492 773__ $$g9, 5 (2016), 630-632$$pJACC-CARDIOVASCULAR IMAGING$$tJACC-CARDIOVASCULAR IMAGING$$x1936-878X 000057492 8564_ $$s178803$$uhttp://zaguan.unizar.es/record/57492/files/texto_completo.pdf$$yPreprint 000057492 8564_ $$s39318$$uhttp://zaguan.unizar.es/record/57492/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon$$xicon$$yPreprint 000057492 909CO $$ooai:zaguan.unizar.es:57492$$particulos$$pdriver 000057492 951__ $$a2016-11-17-09:11:53 000057492 980__ $$aARTICLE