Publications by authors named "Hajnalka Vago"

Background And Aims: Training frequently induces electrocardiographic (ECG) changes that mimic heart diseases, requiring specific criteria for interpretation. Pediatric athletes represent a unique population as training-induced changes and those due to sexual maturation interact and specific criteria may be needed. We aimed to assess the prevalence and its relation to training of ECG abnormalities in young athletes aged 8-18 years.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Pre-exercise carbohydrate intake is known to influence performance; however, data describing their effect on cardiorespiratory parameters is scarce. This study aimed to assess the effects of isotonic drink consumption on cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) parameters in elitemale youth basketball players.

Methods: The athletes were randomized into a fasting (400 ml mineral water) and an isotonic drink (400 ml 7% isotonic solution) group respectively, and consumed the drinks 30 minutes before the CPET.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The effects of physical activity on skeletal muscle mass and cardiac function are well-documented, but there is limited information on the relationship between the two. Furthermore, differentiating between the 'athlete's heart' and pathological cardiac conditions often presents challenges. We aimed to analyze resting echocardiographic parameters in elite water polo athletes, considering sex, anthropometrics, and body composition.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Left ventricular noncompaction (LVNC) is characterized by excessive trabeculation, which may impair left ventricular function over time. While cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) is considered the gold standard for evaluating LV morphology, the optimal modality for follow-up remains uncertain. This study aimed to assess the correlation and agreement among two-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography (2D_TTE), three-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography (3D_TTE), and CMR by comparing volumetric and strain parameters in LVNC patients and healthy individuals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Mitral annular calcification (MAC) is usually considered an incidental, benign, age-related finding without serious complications in patients evaluated for cardiovascular or pulmonary disease with imaging studies that may result in mitral regurgitation or stenosis when severe. Therefore, it is usually not considered a significant alteration. However, there is accumulating evidence that it is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular events, such as atherosclerotic coronary artery disease, aortic artery disease, carotid artery disease, peripheral artery disease, stroke, atrial fibrillation, atrioventricular and/or intraventricular conduction disturbance, systemic embolization, infective endocarditis, heart failure and mortality.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Body composition and cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) are vital for optimizing sports performance, but the correlations between them are still underexplored. Our study aimed to investigate the relationships between body composition and specific CPET variables describing physical fitness in young athletes, also adjusting for age and height, in a less-studied, female population. Seventy players participated in our study (age: 16.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging, utilising native T1 and T2 mapping, provides a non-invasive method for assessing myocardial tissue properties, contributing to the clinical evaluation of the athlete's heart.

Objective: To evaluate T1 and T2 mapping alterations and their association with sex, training volume, sports type, and other standard CMR parameters of the athlete's heart.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of healthy elite athletes (≥10 training hours/week) and sedentary controls (≤5 h/week) who underwent detailed cardiology screening.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The benefits of treadmill-based cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) are well known. However, water polo trainings involve completely different movements in a distinct environment. Our objective was to analyze data from elite youth and adult water polo players, gathered through CPET and age- and sport-specific swimming tests.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Physical inactivity is an important public health problem all over the world and one of the leading risk factors for noncommunicable diseases mortality. Sedentary lifestyle is responsible for the premature death of 5.3 million people worldwide.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

: Although left ventricular excessive trabeculation (LVET) can cause heart failure, arrhythmia and thromboembolism, limited literature is available on the ECG characteristics of primary LVET with preserved left ventricular function (EF). We aimed to compare the ECG characteristics and cardiac MR (CMR) parameters of LVET individuals with preserved left ventricular EF to a control (C) group, to identify sex-specific differences, and to compare the genetic subgroups of LVET with each other and with a C population. : In our study, we selected 69 LVET individuals (EF > 50%) without any comorbidities and compared them to 69 sex- and age-matched control subjects (42% females in both groups, = 1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy (ACM) is a heart condition that causes problems with how the heart beats and can lead to heart weakness due to scarring in the heart muscle.
  • Diagnosing ACM is tricky because there isn't just one test to do it; instead, doctors need to use a combination of different rules and tests.
  • Over the years, experts have updated the way they diagnose ACM, starting from the first criteria in 1994 to new guidelines in 2023 that help better understand the condition and its effects on the heart.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Cardiac rotational parameters in primary symptomatic left ventricular noncompaction (LVNC) with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) are not well understood. We aimed to analyze cardiac rotation measured with cardiac magnetic resonance feature-tracking (CMR-FT) and speckle-tracking echocardiography (Echo-ST) in LVNC morphology subjects with preserved LVEF and different genotypes and healthy controls.

Methods: Our retrospective study included 54 LVNC subjects with preserved LVEF and 54 control individuals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aims: Disruption of the predictable symmetry of the healthy heart may be an indicator of cardiovascular risk. This study defines the population distribution of ventricular asymmetry and its relationships across a range of prevalent and incident cardiorespiratory diseases.

Methods And Results: The analysis includes 44 796 UK Biobank participants (average age 64.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory multisystemic disease of unknown etiology characterized by the formation of non-caseating granulomas. Sarcoidosis can affect any organ, predominantly the lungs, lymphatic system, skin and eyes. While 90% of patients with sarcoidosis have lung involvement, an estimated 5% of patients with sarcoidosis have clinically manifest cardiac sarcoidosis (CS), whereas approximately 25% have asymptomatic, clinically silent cardiac involvement verified by autopsy or imaging studies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Immunocompromised patients are at particular risk of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and previous findings suggest that the infection or vaccination induced immune response decreases over time. Our main goal was to investigate the SARS-CoV-2-specific immune response in rheumatoid arthritis patients and healthy controls over prolonged time.

Methods: The SARS-CoV-2-specific humoral immune response was measured by Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) immunoassay, and antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (NCP) were also evaluated by Euroimmun enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Diastolic dysfunction (DD) is a prevalent and clinically significant complication after heart transplantation (HTX). We aimed to characterize the diastolic function of HTX recipients with both short-term and long-term follow-ups by applying left atrial (LA) deformation analysis. We consecutively enrolled and followed up with 33 HTX patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Population aging is one of the most important demographic transformations of our time. Increasing the "health span"-the proportion of life spent in good health-is a global priority. Biological aging comprises molecular and cellular modifications over many years, which culminate in gradual physiological decline across multiple organ systems and predispose to age-related illnesses.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * An analysis of 15 articles with nearly 2,500 patients found that LGE positivity is linked to a significantly higher SCD risk, especially in patients with non-ischemic conditions.
  • * Although LGE positivity indicates higher SCD risk, the difference in outcomes for CRT candidates based on LGE status was not statistically significant, suggesting that heart remodeling may play a role in this patient group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The genotype of symptomatic left ventricular noncompaction phenotype (LVNC) subjects with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and its effect on clinical presentation are less well studied. We aimed to characterize the genetic, cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and clinical background, and genotype-phenotype relationship in LVNC with preserved LVEF.

Methods: We included 54 symptomatic LVNC individuals (LVEF: 65 ± 5%) whose samples were analyzed with a 174-gene next-generation sequencing panel and 54 control (C) subjects.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: We develop blood test-based aging clocks and examine how these clocks reflect high-volume sports activity.

Methods: We use blood tests and body metrics data of 421 Hungarian athletes and 283 age-matched controls (mean age, 24.1 and 23.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The aim of this study was to characterize the right ventricular (RV) contraction pattern and its associations with exercise capacity in a large cohort of adolescent athletes using resting three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE). We enrolled 215 adolescent athletes (16±1 years, 169 males, 12±6 hours of training/week) and compared them to 38 age and sex-matched healthy, sedentary adolescents. We measured the 3DE-derived biventricular ejection fractions (EF).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Although the COVID-19 pandemic is profoundly changing, data on the effect of vaccination and duration of protection against infection and severe disease can still be advantageous, especially for patients with COPD, who are more vulnerable to respiratory infections. The Hungarian COVID-19 registry was retrospectively investigated for risk of infection and hospitalization by time since the last vaccination, and vaccine effectiveness (VE) was calculated in adults with COPD diagnosis and an exact-matched control group during the Delta variant of concern (VOC) wave in Hungary (September-December 2021). For the matching, sex, age, major co-morbidities, vaccination status, and prior infection data were obtained on 23 August 2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF