Messages In This Digest (1 Message)
- 1a.
- Re: Should athletes be screened for heart problems? From: Ralph Giarnella
Message
- 1a.
-
Re: Should athletes be screened for heart problems?
Posted by: "Ralph Giarnella" ragiarn@yahoo.com ragiarn
Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:01 am (PDT)
I think that the cost of the pre-participation screening is being overblown. The following is an article concerning the pre-participation screening in Italy. They screen about 3 million citizens annually. http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals. org/content/ 27/18/2196. full.pdf
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http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals. org/content/ 27/18/2196. full.pdf
All citizens participat-
ing in organized and competitive sports are required to undergo pre-
ventive general medical and cardiovascular evaluation, which
routinely includes 12-lead ECG, in addition to personal and familyhistory and physical examination (with measurement of blood
pressure).
Several investigations have clarified the spectrum of patho-
logical conditions responsible for athletic field deaths, with
HCM the most common in the USA and responsible for about
one-third of all such events occurring during sport
participation.2– 5
In contrast, the number of athletic field deaths due to
HCM in Italy is negligible,6,7 despite a prevalence of the
disease in the general population apparently similar to
that in other countries
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http://www.c-r-y.org.uk/ why_should_ we_introduce_ an_ecg_p. htm
Contrary to what people are led to believe Sudden Death Syndrome is not very rare. Research has shown that 1 in 500 people have Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) alone. This makes this one condition 5 times more common than Cystic Fibrosis.
At least 12 young people die suddenly each week in the UK of cardiac abnormalities - sudden death syndrome or sudden cardiac deathMany of these deaths are preventable. Many have had symptoms that have not been recognised. Some will have gone to a doctor or hospital and been sent home without even having been given an ECG test.Identifying those at risk saves lives.
An essential requirement of the ECG testing programme will be to fill in a questionnaire recording both personal and family history. A family history is considered positive if one or more close relatives has had a premature heart attack. Personal history would be considered positive if the subject has chest pain or discomfort, fainting or near-fainting, or irregular heartbeat or palpitations on exertion, or if the subject had shortness of breath or fatigue on exertion that was out of proportion to the degree of physical effort.
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In Connecticut every high school athlete is required to have a pre season medical clearance every year. The only addition need for the screening for HCM would be a family history question air and a 12 lead ECG. HCM is an inherited condition. Family history and ECG would eliminate the vast majority of athletes and effort s would then be confined to those would be athletes who fail the screening. How much does it cost to have someone fill out a screening questionaire? - ECG would be done based on the results of the questionnaire. Cost of ECG about $60. Further testing would be done if index of suspicion is raised by the ECG. How much is a young persons life worth?
Ralph Giarnella MD
Southington Ct. USA
_____________________ _________ __
From: Kendall Chew <chew.k3@gmail.com >
To: Supertraining@yahoogroups. com
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 4:38 AM
Subject: [Supertraining] Re: Should athletes be screened for heart problems?
As a result of this topic, I took a look at how much it would cost to
get cardiac screening done, here in the UK, There is a charity called
CRY, dedicated to precisely this activity, they have a mobile
screening service, which trundles around the country.
From their e mail response, they require several rooms to operate from
and charge £35.00 per head. Unfortunately, they require £ 3500.00 for
the day and, the service is booked up until 2013. I don't know 100
junior athletes and, although we have a good club house ( we are a
canoe slalom club) it would be very difficult, if not impossible to
fulfill the criteria. The cost and length of time to get an
appointment might suggest there is a demand for this type of activity
but, £ 3500.00 is an awful lot of money.
Kendall Chew
Cheshire, UK.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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