How can you differentiate hypertrophic cardiomyopathy from athlete’s heart?

How can you differentiate hypertrophic cardiomyopathy from athlete’s heart?

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a hereditary disease with almost 50% recurrence in first order relatives. Athlete’s heart is a thickening of the heart muscles due to training. Athlete’s heart is not dangerous, it is a physiological adaptation of the heart to training with increased load. The simplest way to differentiate the thickening of heart muscle in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with that in athlete’s heart is by temporary deconditioning. Deconditioning by stopping training for a few weeks causes regression of the thickening in athlete’s heart while it has no effect on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy which is genetically determined.