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Measuring Athlete's Risk of Cardiovascular Events 3 (MARC-3)

NCT07625488 · Status: ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION · Type: OBSERVATIONAL · Enrollment: 250

Last updated 2026-08-13

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Regular endurance exercise is widely known to improve cardiovascular health and reduce the risk of heart disease. Yet several imaging studies have shown that male endurance athletes have a higher prevalence of coronary artery calcification (CAC) and calcified plaque than less active individuals. It remains unclear whether this represents harmful progression of coronary artery disease or a more benign, stable form of atherosclerosis. Understanding this distinction is essential, because coronary atherosclerosis is the leading cause of exercise-related cardiac events in athletes \>35 years.

The MARC-3 study is the second long-term follow-up of the original Measuring Athlete's Risk of Cardiovascular Events (MARC) cohort and aims to clarify how lifelong exercise training influences coronary artery health.

The study will:

1. examine how long-term exercise patterns relate to the progression of coronary atherosclerosis;
2. assess plaque characteristics using artificial-intelligence based quantitative coronary CT angiography (AI-QCT);
3. identify biological markers that may link exercise to plaque development; and
4. evaluate long-term clinical outcomes, including all-cause mortality and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE).

Our working hypothesis is that endurance exercise predominantly leads to more stable, calcified plaque, and that mechanisms such as exercise-induced hypertension, inflammation, lipid regulation, and genetic background may provide an explanation for the unexpected results observed in previous studies.

Conditions

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Collaborators within FIT-HEART consortium (e.g. UMC Utrecht, Amsterdam UMC)

    collaborator UNKNOWN

  • Cleerly, Inc.

    collaborator INDUSTRY

  • Caristo Ltd.

    collaborator UNKNOWN

  • Philips Healthcare

    collaborator INDUSTRY

  • Radboud University Medical Center

    lead OTHER

Eligibility

Min Age
45 Years
Sex
MALE
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2026-05-31
Primary Completion
2027-12-31
Completion
2027-12-31

Countries

  • Netherlands

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT07625488 on ClinicalTrials.gov