Study to Check Athlete’s Hearts

Heart health is something we haven’t yet nailed down as to who should get what kind of screening tests and when they should be given. One study has recently looked into screening athletes for hidden heart problems before they participate in sports. The study was based on the idea that some athletes drop dead of cardiac problems during sports activities. This includes older individuals

who exercise and young people who play participation sports or who are runners.

The results of the study showed that pre-screening athletes before participation for heart problems they don’t know they have may not prevent sudden deaths during exercise. The test that was done on the participants of the study was the electrocardiogram or ECG. It is mandatory in some countries prior to athletic participations in young athletes.

Sudden cardiac death in an athlete is a rare occurrence. In the US, for example, only 66 athletes died over a six year period beginning from the year 2000. All of these athletes were under the age of 40. Even so, the tragic nature of their deaths has triggered some governments to recommend that the athlete be tested for electrocardiographic changes before they participate in school sports.

The problem with testing via an ECG is that it is a measure of what the heart is doing at rest and not during activity, such as when the athlete is participating in sports. Certain arrhythmias only occur when the heart is exercising so that a resting ECG would be completely useless in the actual discovery of arrhythmias that make a difference in exercise. The other problem is that some people die during exercise because of IHSS. This is also called idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis. This may not show up at all on ECG and will be missed as a possible cause of heart disease death.

Other studies, mostly out of Italy, which has had mandatory testing since the 1980s, indicates that there has been a sharp reduction in sudden deaths since this has been mandated. The Italians are asking that athletes in the entire European Union be screened for heart disease before athletics. In Israel, you can’t join a gym without being screened for heart disease. Some people have been discovered to have heart disease and have been treated. Before the Israeli law, about 2.5 deaths occurred per 100,000 athletes per year but after the screening mandate, a total of 2.6 deaths per 100,000 individuals were noted. This places doubt as to whether or not there is a benefit to testing athletes before participation.