ArticleThe international journal of cardiovascular imaging2018
Left atrial myocardial dysfunction after chronic abuse of anabolic androgenic steroids: a speckle tracking echocardiography analysis.
Article in The international journal of cardiovascular imaging, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cardiovascular Implications of the Enhanced Games: Performance Enhancing Drugs in Competition and Recreation.Sports medicine - open · 2026Review
- Calibrated Integrated Backscatter Is Associated With Increased Left Ventricular Concentricity and Left Atrial Stiffness in Resistance Trained Individuals Using Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids.Echocardiography (Mount Kisco, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids Induced Cardiomyopathy: A Narrative Review of the Literature.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Managing risks and harms associated with the use of anabolic steroids: a qualitative study.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- The impact of image and performance enhancing drugs on atrial structure and function in resistance trained individuals.Echo research and practice · 2023Article
- How the love of muscle can break a heart: Impact of anabolic androgenic steroids on skeletal muscle hypertrophy, metabolic and cardiovascular health.Reviews in endocrine & metabolic disorders · 2021Review
- The Cardiac Effects of Performance-Enhancing Medications: Caffeine vs. Anabolic Androgenic Steroids.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Anabolic Androgenic Steroids Induce Reversible Left Ventricular Hypertrophy and Cardiac Dysfunction. Echocardiography Results of the HAARLEM Study.Frontiers in reproductive health · 2021Article
- Review
- Strain and Myocardial Work Index during Echo Exercise to Evaluate Myocardial Function in Athletes.Journal of cardiovascular echographyArticle
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
14 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are used by power athletes to improve performance. However, the real effects of the chronic consumption of AAS on cardiovascular structures are subjects of intense debate. To detect by speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) underlying left atrial (LA) dysfunction in athletes abusing AAS and assess possible correlation between LA myocardial function and exercise capacity during cardiopulmonary stress test. 65 top-level competitive bodybuilders were selected (45 males), including 35 athletes misusing AAS for at least 5 years (users), 30 anabolic-free bodybuilders (non-users), compared to 40 age- and sex-matched healthy sedentary controls. Standard Doppler echocardiography, STE analysis and bicycle ergometric test were performed to assess LA myocardial function and exercise capacity. Athletes showed increased left ventricular (LV) mass index, wall thickness and stroke volume compared with controls, whereas LV ejection fraction, LV end-diastolic diameter and transmitral Doppler indexes were comparable between the three groups. Conversely, LA volume index, LV and LA strain and LV E/Em were significantly increased in AAS users. By multivariate analyses, LV E/Em (beta = - 0.30, p < 0.01), LA volume index (- 0.42, p < 0.001) and number of weeks of AAS use per year (- 0.54, p < 0.001) emerged as the only independent determinants of LA lateral wall peak STE. In addition, a close association between LA myocardial function and VO
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.