The cardiovascular benefits of regular physical exercise are well established.However, a small proportion of young (≤35 years) athletes with unsuspected heart disease are at increased risk of exercise related sudden cardiac death. The majority of such deaths are attributable to cardiac anomalies, most of which can be identified during life. A range of therapeutic strategies can be implemented t...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Despite the established diagnostic value of the electrocardiogram in preparticipation screening of athletes, some cardiac structural changes can be missed, particularly in early disease stages. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of cardiac structural changes via the systematic use of echocardiography in preparticipation screening of competitive athl...

The recent 'Recommendations and considerations related to preparticipation screening for cardiovascular abnormalities in competitive athletes: 2007 update', state that it is not 'either prudent or practical to recommend the routine use of test such as 12-lead ECG' into the preparticipation screening, in contrast to previous Recommendations of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the Int...

OBJECTIVES: To provide the reader with an overview of the many causes of sudden cardiac death in young athletes and to present various strategies for preparticipation cardiovascular screening. DATA SOURCE: A MEDLINE search using the phrase sudden cardiac death and the key word athlete for the years 1980 to 2000. DATA SYNTHESIS: Sudden cardiac death is a rare event in athletics. More than 20 dif...

Background—T-wave inversion on a 12-lead ECG is usually dismissed in young people as normal persistence of the juvenile pattern of repolarization. However, T-wave inversion is a common ECG abnormality of cardiomyopathies such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, which are leading causes of sudden cardiac death in athletes. We prospectively assessed...

BACKGROUND T-wave inversion on a 12-lead ECG is usually dismissed in young people as normal persistence of the juvenile pattern of repolarization. However, T-wave inversion is a common ECG abnormality of cardiomyopathies such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, which are leading causes of sudden cardiac death in athletes. We prospectively assessed...

Cardiovascular (CV) screening in young competitive athletes is recommended by the majority of medical and sports governing organizations. There is, however, substantial controversy surrounding the most appropriate screening protocol and whether to add a resting 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) to the preparticipation history and physical examination. Rather than continue polarized debates and co...

In the United States, preparticipation cardiovascular screening for all athletes (not just those who are elite) consists of a personal and family history, and a physical examination without electrocardiography (ECG). Through such screening, those athletes with or suspected of having a possibly lethal genetic or congenital cardiovascular disease (CVD) can be identified and withdrawn from competi...