With very long-term use of steroids, heart starts weakening and the risk of heart failure increases, a new research has said.

Anabolic-androgenic steroids imitate the naturally occurring testosterone, a muscle-building hormone, which props up male sexual features.

Aaron L. Baggish, study author and instructor in medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston said, "Anabolic steroids, in addition to being illegal, have important health consequences. I think for the first time we're starting to realise that the heart is one of the organs that is negatively impacted by long-term steroid use."

In the small research, researchers discovered that the left ventricle was significantly weaker during systolic function in partakers who had consumed steroids as compared to a group of similar non-steroid users.

A strong left ventricle pumps out 55% to 70% of the blood, which fills the heart.

Around 83% of steroid users experienced a low pumping capacity, which earlier researches have associated to augmented chance of coronary failure and unexpected cardiac death.

The users of steroids also showed impaired diastolic function, which is when the left ventricle loosens up and fills with blood.

The study scientists indicated that ventricle relaxation among steroid users, as demonstrated by the left ventricle's proportion of early-to-late blood filling, was diminished by almost half.

Baggish and his coworkers utilized a method called Doppler echocardiography in order to check the left ventricle's function and arrangement.

The examination makes use of high-frequency sound waves or ultrasound, to produce moving pictures of the heart and its blood flow.

The steroid-using group included male lifters aged 40, who reported taking around 675 mgs of steroids on a weekly basis for nine years.

These results of the study were issued in Virculation: Heart Failure, an American Heart Association journal. (With Inputs from Agencies)