Vnitr Lek 2002, 48(Supplement 1):216-219

[Signs of extreme vagotonia in the electrocardiogram of an Olympic 5km running champion].

J Chrástek: Laborator preventivní kardiologie, Hotel Golf, Mariánské Láznĕ.

Hypokinesia (lack of exercise)--a disease caused by lack of physical activity leads among others to a predominance of the sympathetic nerve in the circulation. Its manifestations are briefly described according to Kraus-Raab's hypothesis of 1961. The opposite of a hypokinetic man are trained (hyperkinetic) sportsmen, in particular long-distance runners. Their neurovegetative balance is shifted to the side of the vagus (parasympathetic nerve). This is described as training vagotonia. On the example of ECG tracings of an Olympic 5 km runner, the Tunisian Mohamed Gammoudi, the author describes its manifestations at rest, during the orthostatic test and during work, i.e. the step test. These manifestations include in particular bradycardia of 32 beats per minute, prolonged atrioventricular conduction > 0.2 sec., a long period of the electric systole = 0.44 sec. and an enormously prolonged electric diastole T-P = 1.1 sec. This long diastolic filling stage makes it possible in particular during physical work to increase the systolic and diastolic output to double the values of a healthy non-trained heart. Training vagotonia is usually not the source for manifestation of dangerous arrhythmias, as it may be the case in constitutional vagotonia. So far expert comparison of these two types of change to parasympathic tonus is lacking, similarly as a comparative study with medicamentously influenced vagotonia by means of beta-blockers.