Abstract
Sudden cardiac arrest or death (SCA/SCD) in athletes has a low event rate. Pre-participation or eligibility screening is a widely accepted method of primary prevention of SCA/SCD in athletes. Most European countries and international sports governing bodies perform ECG-inclusive screening. However, implementation of a resting 12-lead ECG in pre-participation or eligibility cardiac screening is still a topic of debate. Recently, the ‘International recommendations for electrocardiographic interpretation in athletes’ was published in three leading international medical journals. These international ECG criteria are based on studies with detailed information on resting 12-lead ECG of Caucasian and Afro-Caribbean athletes or on consensus in case evidence was lacking. Normal, borderline and abnormal ECG findings in young athletes (age 12–35 years) are clearly described and illustrated to assist the screening physician in interpreting ECGs of athletes correctly.In this ‘point of view paper’ we will discuss whether these new ECG criteria actually help prevent SCA/SCD in athletes.
Highlights
Sudden cardiac arrest and/or death (SCA/SCD) in athletes is a very tragic event that attracts a lot of media attention
Most inherited and congenital cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in athletes at risk of VT/VF can be identified during life [2, 3]
AV atrioventricular, ECG electrocardiogram, RBBB right bundle branch block, LVH left ventricular hypertrophy, RVH right ventricular hypertrophy participation or eligibility cardiac screening results raise suspicion of a CVD at risk of VT/VF additional cardiac evaluation is recommended before clearing the athlete [8, 9, 17]
Summary
Sudden cardiac arrest and/or death (SCA/SCD) in athletes is a very tragic event that attracts a lot of media attention. Primary prevention with pre-participation or eligibility cardiac screening is a widely accepted method to reduce SCA/SCD in athletes [8,9,10]. In this manuscript we discuss the ‘International recommendations for electrocardiographic interpretation in athletes’, questioning if these new ECG criteria help preventing SCA/SCD in athletes [12,13,14]. The purpose of pre-participation or eligibility cardiac screening in athletes is identifying CVD at risk of VT/VF and reducing SCA/SCD by disease management [8,9,10].
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