Pratiques sportives : risques et toxicité cardiaques potentiels

Abstract

Sports practice is a universally recognized benefit both in terms of the heart and the entire body. However, at the time of the effort, the risk of sudden death, although low, is increased. Before 35 years old, screening during a medical visit with, depending on the case, the completion of an electrocardiogram could improve the situation. After 35 years old, special attention should be paid to coronary artery disease and athlete risk stratification. For athletes with known heart disease, recommendations exist but they do not answer all the questions. It is probably necessary to encourage as much as possible the sport practice as long as one keeps in mind the situations in which it is clearly proscribed. Finally, for some enduring athletes, there is an adaptation to the effort that goes beyond the athlete's heart with non-reversible changes that become lesions and are potentially dangerous. This is clinically manifested as atrial fibrillation most often but elements attempt to demonstrate the same mechanisms at the ventricular level with potentially much more dangerous rhythmic complications. If we are to strive to make progress in understanding and preventing these risks, we must immediately improve the immediate burden of these sudden death patients and improve the basic resuscitation capacity of the general population.