The Athlete's Heart - Tony Forshaw

The Athlete's Heart - Tony Forshaw

This session explores Athlete’s Heart from the sonographer’s perspective, focusing on the challenging overlap between normal physiological adaptation to exercise and underlying cardiac pathology. Through practical echo examples and clinical cases, Tony Forshaw examines how different types and intensities of training influence cardiac remodelling, including changes in chamber size, wall thickness, ventricular function and strain. The lesson highlights key features that help distinguish healthy athletic adaptation from conditions such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy and LV non-compaction. Particular attention is given to the echocardiographic “grey zones,” the importance of proportional remodelling, accurate measurements, strain imaging, coronary artery assessment and the role of ultrasound-enhancing agents.