Abstract
Objectives: While endurance exercise such as training for marathons is cardioprotective, cardiac arrests and sudden death occur in previously healthy runners during races predominantly in middle-aged males due to atherosclerotic heart disease. Recent evidence related to this problem is reviewed herein including epidemiologic studies and findings related to acute cardiac risk in asymptomatic middle-aged male runners during races. Method: Literature review related to the above. Findings: The risks of cardiac arrest and sudden death were 1 in 57,002 and 1 in 171,005 respectively in runners with a mean age of 49.7 years among 1,710,052 participants in marathons in the United States since 1980. Atherosclerotic heart disease was the cause of death in over 90% of cases in two retrospective studies and a greater than two-fold increase in cardiac arrests was observed in middle-aged men in the latter half of a 10-year prospective registry beginning in the year 2000. Asymptomatic middle-aged male runners showed elevated biomarkers of inflammation such as interleukin-6, C-reactive protein together with procoagulant effects including in vivo platelet activation, indicating susceptibility to atherothrombosis. Conclusions: Antithrombotic prophylaxis is evidence-based by validated clinical paradigms to prevent cardiac arrest and sudden death in susceptibile marathon runners at high risk for atherothrombosis during races.
Highlights
While endurance exercise such as marathon training is cardioprotective, an increased risk for sudden cardiac death during races has been demonstrated predominantly in middle-aged male participants
While endurance exercise such as training for marathons is cardioprotective, cardiac arrests and sudden death occur in previously healthy runners during races predominantly in middle-aged males due to atherosclerotic heart disease
Atherosclerotic heart disease was the cause of death in over 90% of cases in two retrospective studies and a greater than two-fold increase in cardiac arrests was observed in middle-aged men in the latter half of a 10-year prospective registry beginning in the year 2000
Summary
While endurance exercise such as marathon training is cardioprotective, an increased risk for sudden cardiac death during races has been demonstrated predominantly in middle-aged male participants. The conundrum of how runners at low resting cardiovascular risk become vulnerable to cardiac arrest during races is explored together with consideration of strategies for prevention
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