Marcadores de daño muscular en deportistas jóvenes de la Federación Deportiva del Azuay. Ecuador

The objective of the study was to identify the presence of muscle damage in athletes from the Azuay Province, Ecuador, by measuring enzyme activity. To this aim, a clinical, descriptive and cross-sectional investigation was carried out on 220 athletes aged between 14 and 18 years (average 17.3 years), predominantly male (64.1%), belonging to 11 sports disciplines, whose blood values for lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase and creatine kinase isoenzyme MB were determined. The main results showed that, with a length of sports practice between one and three years (39.1%) and a training frecuency of three times per week (54.5%), athletes with normal values of muscle markers predominated. Swimming was the sport in which a greater number of athletes with alterations in serum creatine kinase and preparatocreatine kinase isoenzyme MB values were identified. It is concluded that female sex and the practice of systematic physical activity for a period of less than one year and with a training frequency less than three times a week were the general characteristics that had a negative impact on the serum values of the identified muscle damage markers.