HealthDay News — Drinking taurine- and caffeine-containing energy drinks has short-term effects on cardiac function in healthy adults, according to researchers.
Results of an MRI study revealed left ventricle (LV) contractility was significantly increased one hour after consuming an energy drink, Jonas Doerner, MD, from the University of Bonn in Germany, and colleagues reported at the 2013 meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
There were no effects on heart rate, blood pressure or left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF).
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With energy drink consumption increasing in the United States and growing concerns about the potential health consequences, Doerner and colleagues conducted cardiac MRI on 31 healthy patients with an average age of 28 years. Participants were scanned before and one hour after having an energy drink that contained 32 mg/100 mL of caffeine and 400 mg/100 mL of taurine.
One hour after consuming an energy drink, systolic left ventricle-contractility as assessed by peak strain and peak systolic strain rate significantly increased — 7% and 6%, respectively.
There were no changes in heart rate, BP or LVEF, and there were only slight significant increases in left ventricular end diastolic volume and left ventricular stroke volume.
Although it is known that strain is produced by the application of stress and is a measure of the heart’s ability to contract, the clinical implications of the findings are not clear.
The researchers called for more studies to determine long-term cardiovascular affect of energy drinks on both healthy individuals and those with preexisting conditions.
