Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Case Report
Abstract: Myocardial bridging is a congenital anomaly with an intramural course of a coronary artery in which a more or less long segment of a coronary branch, instead of running normally on the epicardial surface of the heart, dips into the myocardium and is surrounded by a ring or cuff of muscle fibres that can cause extrinsic “throttling” of the artery during systolic contraction. The guidelines for granting eligibility for competitive sport have evolved over time: from 2009, when any case of myocardial bridging meant exclusion from eligibility, to today, when only significant bridging, i.e. “long” bridging > 1 cm and > 3 mm deep, restricts competitive sport activity. Incidentally, some myocardial bridging can be very detrimental and potentially dangerous for athletes, especially if the tunneled artery has a proximal stenosis and the athlete has a positive ex-ECG stress test. The purpose of this case report is simply to make physicians in general, and sports cardiologists in particular, think about this delicate issue so that they know how to make the right decisions.
Language: English
Subfield: Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4408134635