Heart weight, critical

The normal heart weight for men is between approx. 300 - 350 g and for women between approx. 250 - 300 g (Roskamm 2013).

The critical heart weight is 500 g (Herold 2018) or 7.5 g / kg bw (Scharhag 2013).

From the critical heart weight, the initial concentric hypertrophy turns into an eccentric hypertrophy with an increase in heart muscle fibers, the so-called hyperplasia of the fibers (Herold 2018).

Above this weight, there is a risk of hypoxia, triggered by relative coronary insufficiency and cardiac dilatation (Krause 2022).

- Athlete's heart

In this case, eccentric hypertrophy of the heart leads to a physiological adaptation to endurance sports. However, the critical heart weight is not exceeded (Kindermann 2014).

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