Researchers reported to the Journal of the American Medical Association that routine electroencephalographs as a part of preparticipation physical exams “could reduce sudden cardiac death in young athletes.”  This statement made after studying sudden deaths in young athletes between the years of 1985 and 1995, they found that 85% of the sudden deaths were caused by some type of heart related abnormality.

Of these abnormalities found, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM), was the most common disorder.  HCM is a congenital heart disease that causes thickening in the wall of the left ventricle and can lead to electrical problems of the heart and possible arrhythmias. 

The challenge of this disorder is that there often are no signs or symptoms  until an event occurs.  If quality emergency measures are not provided immediately (CPR and AED), the athlete may not recover.

“So, if the athlete has no history of shortness of breath, chest pain, or exertional cardiac symptoms associated with exercise, how can these types of sudden deaths be prevented?”  The article goes on to say that this is a controversial topic in the sports medicine community for a long time especially when media attention focuses on the increase of sudden cardiac deaths in our youth. 

The other study fueling a medical debate is the study performed by Italy over 27 years ago.  The country of Italy mandated the nationwide use of a 12-lead ECG as a part of perparticipation screening  for all athletes.  They followed each participant for 25 years.  Their results showed a 89% reduction in the incidence of sudden cardiac death due to the screening they provided.

So, you might ask, why don’t we have this mandate for ECG’s in our country?  There are pro’s and con’s depending on who you talk to. 

• Cost/logistics
• Limited time,equipment, and personnel
• False positives
• Health insurance coverage
• Other solutions such as AED access

In a perfect world (without financial and personnel limitations), the addition of ECG tests as part of the pre-participation exam would ensure that at-risk athletes would be indentified and referred for advanced cardiac tests. 

No matter how you look at it, ECG’s could reduce the rate of sudden cardiac death in young athletes.

Championship Hearts Foundation offers both an ECG and ECHO at their free heart screenings.  The next heart screening is scheduled on July 31st, 2010 at The Heart Hospital of Austin (3801 N. Lamar Blvd) from 8:00 am to 12:oo noon.

A recent story published in the LA Times (Jeannine Stein, 11/23/09) suggests that comprehensive screenings could be the answer to the tragedy of a young athlete dying of an undiagnosed heart condition.  Health histories and screenings were conducted on 134 Maryland high school athletes attending the state track and field championships in 2008. 

Dr. Aurelio Pinheiro of the the Johns Hopkins School of medicine and his colleagues were specifically looking for cardiac abnormalities such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart muscle that makes it difficult for the heart to pump blood.

Of the 134 athletes tested (tests included an echocardiogram, an EKG, blood pressure, and health history), abnormalities of some kind were found in 36 athletes.  Of those 36, 22 were found via EKG alone and five by both tests. 

Dr. Pinheiro states that these findings argue for routine testing of athletes, suggesting that such testing should be comprehensive and not reliant on just an EKG or an echocardiogram.  

This study was presented at the American Heart Association’s annual scientific sessions conference in Orlando, Florida in November, 2009.

We have three heart screening events for 2010 – all at Heart Hospital of Austin:

February 20, 2010 from 8:00 am to 12:00 noon

July 31, 2010 from 8:00 am to 12:00 noon

August 28, 2010 from 8:00 am to 12:00 noon

Thank you Heart Hospital of Austin for allowing us to host these events!

Heart Hospital of Austin