A Comparative Study of Electrocardiographic Changes and Blood Glucose Level in Athletes and Non-Athletes

Regular physical exercise prevents the occurrence of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, halts their progress and also decreases their intensity. It is very much important to study the cardiac changes and glyacemic status of an athlete, who enjoys the extreme height of physical fitness, and non-athlete. This study was done to see the physiological adaptive electrical cardiac changes and blood glucose level of athletes and compare the changes with non-athlete individuals. A total of 100 male athletes of Sports Authority of India, Guwahati and 100-age match male control that were non-athletes were studied. 12-lead resting E.C.G. was recorded using a BPL-CARDIART 108-DIGI electrograph and post-absorptive blood glucose level is estimated by glucose oxidase/peroxidase (GOD/POD) colorimetric method of Tinder. The significance of the difference of the mean was calculated by Student t-test. In this study, bradycardia and early repolarization is found to be more in athletes (27% and 24%) in comparison to non-athletes (0% and 12%) respectively. Significant difference noted in heart rate (66.55±11.40/sec Vs.80.64±12.35/sec); PR-interval (0.1502±0.027/sec. Vs. 0.1356±0.019sec); and QRS amplitude (33.87±5.68mm) vs. (26.98±4.85mm). Athletes showed significantly (92.42±9.75mg/dl Vs. 96.53±16.46mg/dl) better glycaemic status than the non-athlete group. Regular physical training cause asymptomatic physiological adaptive cardiac changes and it also helps to maintain better glycaemic status.