CHANGES

The study was designed with the main intent to assess and explain the differ-ences between athlete’s heart syndrome and the heart of healthy non-athletes, and to distinguish between physiological and pathological heart condition. Prolonged athletic training causes changes in heart that are termed “athlete’s heart syndrome”. Athlete’s heart diagnosis and related issues are a great chal-lenge due to complementary morphological, functional and electro-physiolog-ical changes that may indicate both physiological and pathological condition. The study included subjects, of those were active athletes and were in control group. The study protocol included one clinical examina-tion, one electrocardiogram and one echocardiograph for each subject. Aver-age age was ,±, in the athletes and ,±, in control group. Sig-nificantly higher average left ventricle (LV) mass (,g vs. ,g) and LV mass index (,g/m vs. ,g/m) was found in the athletes (p<,). Th e study showed increased mass and wall thickness with usual inner dimensions of athlete’s heart. Systolic and diastolic function of athlete’s heart is normal. Ath-lete’s heart with these features is a healthy heart. KEY WORDS: athlete’s heart, left ventricle hypertrophy, ultrasound