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Photo Credit: Alexander Trifonov
Scientific Frontline: "At a Glance" Summary
- Main Discovery: Cardiovascular adaptability and heart performance in athletes with disabilities correlate primarily with the specific sport practiced rather than the type of disability.
- Methodology: Researchers conducted a four-year study analyzing 141 cardiorespiratory and physical performance parameters in over 700 volunteers aged 6 to 60 with various sensory, intellectual, and musculoskeletal disorders.
- Key Data: Skiers and swimmers demonstrated higher physical performance—measured by oxygen consumption—compared to sledge hockey players and footballers with cerebral palsy, regardless of their specific medical conditions.
- Significance: This finding shifts the focus of adaptive sports training from diagnosis-based limitations to sport-specific demands, aiding in the safe rehabilitation and social integration of populations with disabilities.
- Future Application: Coaches and medical professionals can use these insights to design optimized, sport-specific training regimens and load limits that minimize health risks for athletes with connective tissue dysplasia.
- Branch of Science: Sports Medicine and Cardiology.
- Additional Detail: All participants exhibited connective tissue dysplasia manifested as false tendons (bridges) within the heart, yet functional capacity was dictated by athletic discipline rather than these structural anomalies.
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| UrFU Laboratory of Functional Testing and Integrated Control in Sports works with sportsmen. Photo Credit: Alexander Trifonov |
Scientists from Ural Federal University, Ural State Medical University, as well as the Sverdlovsk Regional Hospital No. 2, conducted a large-scale four-year study. They studied the reserve capabilities of the cardiovascular system in sportsmen with connective tissue dysplasia and disabilities and found that heart performance is more associated with the type of sport rather than with the type of disability. This is one of the first works in the world of science.
The study, on the one hand, identifies the mechanisms that are responsible for the heart's response to physical activity in sportsmen with disabilities, and, on the other hand, it will help to develop recommendations for sports training and to choose the optimal load with minimal health risks. The results of the study are published in the journal Sports.
“Studying the peculiarities of adaptation of the cardiovascular system to physical exertion in people with disabilities is extremely important from the point of view of maintaining health and safe engagement in adaptive sports and adaptive physical culture. According to WHO, there are more than a billion people with some form of disability in the world today. For the rehabilitation of such people, not only medical care is important, but also sports and physical education, which help to compensate for disabilities, preserve the potential for further social adaptation and integration, and an active life. Therefore, research like ours has not only a medical, but also an important social significance,” said Kamilia Vinokurova, Head of UrFU Laboratory of Sport and Recreational Technologies, co-author of the study.
The task of the scientists was to determine the general patterns of the heart adaptation to intense physical exertion in sportsmen with disabilities. To do this, they analyzed 141 parameters of cardiorespiratory function and physical performance in more than 700 volunteers aged 6 to 60 with hearing, visual, intellectual, and musculoskeletal disorders. They worked with sportsmen involved in swimming, skiing, football, sledge hockey, horse riding, wheelchair tennis, dancing, athletics, orienteering, and other sports.
“We found out that all sportsmen, without exception, had additional (abnormal) elements inside the heart in the form of bridges (false tendons) connecting sections of the heart wall. On the one hand, such changes in the design of the heart reflect connective tissue dysplasia in sportsmen. On the other hand, the very existence of these anomalies implies a contribution of constructive changes to the heart's functional capabilities. Therefore, we have tried to understand the role of dysplasia on sport performance in disabled sportsmen,” explained Felix Blyakhman, Professor at UrFU and USMU.
It turned out that the range of physical activity that the heart can tolerate without harm to health depends significantly more on what kind of sportsmen with disabilities engage in than on the nature of their disability. For example, physical performance, estimated by the amount of oxygen consumption in exercise, was higher among skiers and swimmers compared with football players with cerebral palsy and representatives of sledge hockey. At the same time, the value of this indicator practically did not differ from what kind of health deviation these sportsmen were engaged in.
According to scientists, sportsmen with disabilities need an individual pre-competitive cardiological examination with mandatory echocardiography and stress tests. Such data will help to choose the optimal load and create an effective training program with minimized health risks for not only people with disabilities, but also for people with congenital and/or acquired heart disorders.
“One of the results of the study was the scientific justification that health restrictions are not the main obstacle to physical education and sports. Regular and informed workouts can significantly increase body reserves, even with connective tissue dysplasia. We showed that people with disabilities can perform intense workouts, just like healthy sportsmen. They also need serious medical and biological support,” added Felix Blyakhman.
The next stage of the work of the scientific group will be aimed at developing criteria for dosing exercises depending on age, gender, and severity of health problems in sportsmen. They plan to develop recommendations for assessing the functional reserve of the heart and interpreting these data for people with disabilities as a result.
Published in journal: Sports
Authors: Kamiliia Vinokurova, Anna Zakharova, Yulia Zinovieva, Arseniy Epifanov, Anna Galdobina, Ekaterina Sharkova, and Felix Blyakhman
Source/Credit: Ural Federal University | Anastasia Pyankova
Reference Number: med021826_01