ArticleCureus2025
A Comparative Study Among Elite Female Volleyball Players and the General Population: Are All Valvular Regurgitations Benign?
Article in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDespite the global popularity of volleyball as an Olympic sport, there is a relative paucity of research concerning its cardiovascular implications. Valvular regurgitation is a common finding among athletes and may lead to diagnostic ambiguity, particularly in elite female volleyball players.
objectivesIn this study, we conducted a comparative echocardiographic analysis between elite female volleyball athletes and a control group from the general population.
methodEchocardiographic data of elite volleyball players from the Turkish Sultans League were compared with those of sedentary female controls. The frequency and severity of heart valve regurgitation were evaluated.
resultsA total of 31 elite athletes were included in the study and compared to 37 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Echocardiographic measurements revealed that the left ventricular end-diastolic diameter was higher in athletes than in controls (48.0 ± 2.6 mm vs. 43.7 ± 2.5 mm, p = 0.04). Additionally, grade 2 mitral (p = 0.04) and tricuspid (p = 0.003) valve insufficiencies were more frequently observed in elite athletes compared to the control group. However, aortic valve insufficiency was not observed as a characteristic of the athlete's heart. All participants were asymptomatic.
conclusionElite female volleyball players demonstrated a higher prevalence of mitral and tricuspid valve insufficiencies compared to healthy controls. Moreover, the left ventricular end-diastolic diameter was significantly larger in athletes. However, no significant differences were observed in other echocardiographic parameters, and aortic valve insufficiency was not identified as a characteristic of the athlete's heart. Further studies are needed to provide more sport-specific data on these findings.
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.