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Cited by 81Cardiovascular Effects of ExerciseAtrial Fibrillation Management and OutcomesExercise and Physiological Responses

Atrial fibrillation in athletes: Implicit literature-based connections suggest that overtraining and subsequent inflammation may be a contributory mechanism

Swanson, Don R.·2006·Medical Hypotheses
DOI 10.1016/j.mehy.2006.01.006
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Abstract

Research on atrial fibrillation (AF), a common heart arrhythmia in the elderly, over many decades has resulted in a literature of more than 16,000 articles indexed in Medline. An exploratory Medline search was conducted in which the subheadings for epidemiology and etiology of AF were combined to form a small subset of the initial records. Further computer-assisted selection led to a few articles that reported an unexpectedly high prevalence of AF in groups of otherwise healthy middle-aged endurance runners and other athletes. Why athletes should be unusually susceptible to AF is mysterious and puzzling. Because relatively few articles are about both AF and endurance exercise, a computer was used first to create a list of important terms that these two separate literatures had in common. Several inflammation-related terms, including C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6, were on that list. Further searching and literature analysis revealed that excessive endurance exercise or overtraining can lead to chronic systemic inflammation and, separately, that there is a solid association between CRP and AF and that anti-inflammatory agents have been reported to lower CRP and ameliorate AF. No articles were found that brought together all three concepts - AF, inflammation, and exercise. The following hypothesis is plausible, readily testable, and apparently novel: Older athletes diagnosed with AF but otherwise healthy who have engaged in rigorous aerobic endurance exercise for mo…

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  • Regular exercise can induce chronic systemic inflammation, as shown by increased levels of CRP, and may lead to atrial electrical remodeling and therefore to the development of AF.

    “The proposed theory is that regular exercise can induce chronic systemic inflammation, as shown by increased levels of CRP, and may lead to atrial electrical remodeling and, therefore, to the development of AF [55].”

    From Atrial Fibrillation in Elite Athletes: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature (2024) · cites this paper as [55]

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Authors
Swanson, D. R.
Affiliations
University of Chicago (US)
Corresponding author
Swanson, Don R.
Venue
Medical Hypotheses
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2006-01
Volume
66
Issue
6
Pages
1085-1092
ISSN
0306-9877 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.mehy.2006.01.006
OpenAlex
W2135302069
Cited by
81
References
53
Citations by year
2024: 5 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 5
FWCI
0.84
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Medical Hypotheses (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
U.S. National Library of Medicine (R01 LM07292-05, R01LM007292)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiovascular Effects of Exercise
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Atrial Fibrillation Management and Outcomes
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Rehabilitation › Exercise and Physiological Responses
Keywords
atrial fibrillation, athletes, endurance runners, overtraining, chronic systemic inflammation, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, anti-inflammatory therapy, arrhythmia etiology
MeSH terms
Atrial Fibrillation, Humans, Inflammation, Periodicals as Topic, Cumulative Trauma Disorders, Sports, Exercise, Comorbidity, Causality, Incidence, Exercise Movement Techniques

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