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Background: Sports athletes, namely high-intensity practitioners, suffer from vascular remodeling overtime. The purpose of this study was to analyze the systolic and diastolic velocities' variation between non-athletes and futsal athletes by means of arterial lower limb doppler ultrasound. Additionally, we intended to verify if the velocity variations occur primarily at the systolic or the diastolic level and in which arteries. Methods: Seventy-six young males (mean ± SD: 24.9 ± 2.8 years old) volunteered to participate in this cross-sectional study and were divided into two groups: a futsal athletes group (n = 38; 24 ± 2.78 years) in the central region of Portugal playing on the 2nd national league with the same level of practice (16 ± 2.4 years of practice) and a non-athletes group (n = 38: 26 ± 1.8 years) who did not practice sports regularly and were not federated in any sport. All the subjects agreed to participate in the study with the aim of assessing the arterial lower limb through doppler ultrasound (Philips HD7 echograph with linear transducer 7-12 MHz). Results: Differences between groups (p ≤ 0.05) in the systolic velocity of the left deep femoral artery (p = 0.022; d = 0.546, small) and in the right superficial femoral artery (p = 0.028; d = -0.515, small) were found. We also found differences in the diastolic velocity: in the left common femoral artery (p = 0.002; d = -0.748, moderate), in the right deep femoral artery (p = 0.028; d = -0.521, small), in the right superficial femoral artery (p = 0.026; d = -0.522, small), in the right popliteal artery (p = 0.002; d = -0.763, moderate), and in the left popliteal artery (p = 0.007; d = -0.655, moderate). Moreover, the athletes' group presented the highest mean values, with the exception of the systolic velocity of the left deep femoral artery. In intragroup analysis of variance referring to systolic and diastolic velocities in arterial levels in the right and left arteries, differences were found in all analyses (p ≤ 0.05). Conclusions: We conclude that futsal athletes of our sample go through a process of changes such as increased blood flow velocity in systolic and diastolic cardiac phase in all studied lower limb arteries, showing that the remodeling occurs regardless of vessel radius. Our results reinforce the existence of vascular remodeling that may vary with the sport and its intensity.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the arterial and venous diameters of lower limbs in indoor soccer athletes and non-athletes using Doppler ultrasound to identify the differences in the variation of arterial and venous diameters between groups. Additionally, we intended to verify the differences of arterial and venous diameters between the skilled member (right member) and the not skilled member in each group. 74 male volunteers, aged between 19 and 30 years old, were divided in a group of athletes (n = 37, 24 ± 2.7 years, soccer players from national championship), and a group of non-athletes (n = 37, 26 ± 2.83 years). Vascular lower limb was assessed using Doppler ultrasound (Philips HD7 echograph with linear transducer 7–12 MHz). The athletes showed higher diameters of right common femoral artery (p = 0.009; moderate), left common femoral artery (p = 0.005; moderate), right deep femoral artery (p = 0.013; moderate), right popliteal artery (p = 0.003; moderate), and left popliteal artery (p = 0.017; small) than non-athletes. Veins’ diameters were also higher in athletes, specifically the right deep femoral vein (p ≤ 0.001; large), left deep femoral vein (p ≤ 0.001; large), right popliteal vein (p ≤ 0.001; large), and left popliteal vein (p ≤ 0.001; large). Differences were found between the skilled and non-skilled leg in athletes in the popliteal vein (7.68 ± 1.44 mm vs. 7.22 ± 1.09 mm, respectively, p < 0.003). It seems that futsal athletes have superior mean diameters of lower limbs arteries and veins of the deep venous system to non-athletes. Moreover, the veins presented greater dilation, namely of the leg of the skilled lower limb.