Silent Myocardial Ischemia in Master Marathon Runner | Chapter 08 | New Insights into Disease and Pathogen Research Vol. 1
Silent myocardial ischemia is defined as objective documentation of myocardial ischemia in the absence of angina or anginal equivalents. Silent myocardial ischemia is quite different from silent coronary artery disease. The symptomatic angina is the tip of the ischemic iceberg and it is less frequent in athletes than in non-athletes. Athletes change their perception of ischemic stimulus and increasing pain threshold from increased circulating endorphin levels. Silent myocardial ischemia is more prevalent than angina in patients with coronary artery disease, and athletes are not immune to it. In order to discover early stages of malignant neoplasia (e.g. breast and colon cancer) in the asymptomatic stage and thus prevent reaching final stages of the disease, screening participation has been widely accepted. Vice versa, althoug...