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Sport Sciences for Health
Published in: Sport Sciences for Health 3/2015

01-12-2015 | Review

Gender differences in cardiovascular functions during exercise: a brief review

Authors: Elisabetta Marongiu, Antonio Crisafulli

Published in: Sport Sciences for Health | Issue 3/2015

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Abstract

Exercise is a major challenge for the cardiovascular apparatus, since it has to provide adequate oxygen supply to exercising muscles and to guarantee arterial blood pressure regulation. Several adjustments, such as heart rate increase, contractility enhancement, and venous return modulation are made to accomplish this task. Furthermore, regular physical training induces several physiological adaptations due to an increase in parasympathetic and a decrease in sympathetic tone and to chronic increases in cardiac pre-load and after-load. There are gender-related physiological and morphological differences in the cardiovascular adjustments and adaptations to physical exercise in humans. In this review, we briefly summarize these differences. Moreover, differences in ECG pattern between sexes are discussed.
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Metadata
Title
Gender differences in cardiovascular functions during exercise: a brief review
Authors
Elisabetta Marongiu
Antonio Crisafulli
Publication date
01-12-2015
Publisher
Springer Milan
Published in
Sport Sciences for Health / Issue 3/2015
Print ISSN: 1824-7490
Electronic ISSN: 1825-1234
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-015-0237-x

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