The athlete's heart: A deep dive into sports cardiology with Dr. Aubrey Grant

In our latest podcast episode, Debra sits down with Dr. Aubrey Grant, a sports and performance cardiologist at Medstar Health, who offers a deep dive into sports cardiology, the athlete's heart, and its capacity to remodel itself.

Dr. Grant, a graduate of the only sports cardiology fellowship in the country, shares his unique insights into the physiological wonders of high-performance athletes. He explains how the heart, much like any other muscle, remodels itself in response to the demands of intense exercise. This remodeling can result in an athlete's heart looking and functioning differently than a non-athlete's heart, with adaptations that are both fascinating and complex.

Listeners will be intrigued by the discussion on how different sports lead to different heart adaptations. For instance, a marathon runner's heart will not be the same as an NFL lineman's. Dr. Grant also sheds light on the importance of differentiating between these healthy adaptations and actual heart disease, a critical aspect of sports cardiology.

Dr. Grant discusses the use of cardiopulmonary exercise testing, echocardiograms, and cardiac MRI to assess and manage the conditions of his patients. The conversation also touches on the alarming topic of sudden cardiac arrest in athletes, the importance of CPR education, and access to defibrillators.

Dr. Grant sees patients at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore and MedStar Health at Lafayette Centre in Washington, D.C. For interviews with Dr. Grant, or for more information about this podcast, contact Regional Media Relations Director, [email protected].

To learn more about Dr. Grant, visit: https://www.medstarhealth.org/doctors....

For more episodes of MedStar Health DocTalk, go to medstarhealth.org/doctalk.