Comparison of cardiac biomarkers fluctuation in runners of marathons, semi-marathons and untrained runners

BACKGROUND: Regular exercise like running is one important part of the prevention program of cardiovascular disease. There are several studies on biomarker changes during marathons especially cardiac biomarkers have been studied and mild to moderate elevations have been described as a results of a running exercise Exact underlying mechanism for these biomarker elevations reflecting physiological or even pathobiological changes is unknown and less trained athletes might exhibit a higher risk compared to well trained The aim of our study was to compare three cardiac biomarkers for ischemic condition (Troponin), cardiac stretch (natriuretic peptides) and fibrotic processes (Galectin3) were tested in different type of runners, trained marathon and semimarathon runners and untrained runners before, directly after and 3 hours after the running exercise.
METHODS: 23 (mean age 41± 8.8 yo) marathon runners, 15 semimarathon runners(44.1±8.4yo) and 17 healthy sedentary subjects (37± 4.4 yo) (race of 10 km, <2h of sport/week). Blood samples were taken just before (T0), just after (T1) and 3 hours (T3) after the race, centrifuged, aliquoted and stored frozen at 80C before further analysis. The study was approved by the Ethical Committee of our University Hospital. The analyses were performed on the Abbott ARCHITECT i2000SR (Abbott Laboratories, Germany) for the hs cTnI, BNP and Gal3 and on the C8000 (Roche Diagnostics, Switzerland) for hscTnT and NTproBNP according to the manufacturer’s instructions for use.
RESULTS: In all 3 running groups there is an increase of cardiac biomarkers Troponin I, BNP, Galectin3 and NTProBNP after completion of the physical exercise. Biomarkers increase is depending on the intensity and duration of the exercise and is higher in long distance marathon and semimarathon runners compared to the control group with a 1 hour run. Cardiac biomarker levels between trained marathon and semimarathon runners were not statistically different in the preexercise
baseline samples for BNP, NTProBNP and Galectin3. Compared to untrained runners only Troponin I levels were higher in baseline sample of marathon runners (hscTnI, p<0.03) when compared to controls, cardiac Troponin T (hscTnT, p<0.29) was less significant.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates that exercises of different intensity can be associated with biochemical abnormalities that may reflect adverse consequences on cardiac structure as fibrosis and biology. With exeption of Troponin I there was no difference in the preexercise baselines samples.