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Iatreia
Print version ISSN 0121-0793
Abstract
GARCIA-ORTIZ, José David. Heart screening for prevention of sudden death in college athletes from Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia. Iatreia [online]. 2017, vol.30, n.3, pp.265-275. ISSN 0121-0793. https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.iatreia.v30n3a02.
Active sport participation is beneficial for health and welfare of individuals, but inherent to its practice is the risk of suffering different injuries, and sudden cardiac death. Hence, the International Olympic Committee recommends athletes to submit to cardiovascular screening tests before sport participation. The objective of this study was to describe the prevalence of underlying cardiovascular disorders which could cause sudden death in a sample of 80 college athletes from Universidad de Antioquia, from sport disciplines with a dynamic component varying from moderate to high. The heart screening protocol of the European Society of Cardiology was applied including a survey to detect personal and family health history, a physical cardiovascular evaluation and a 12-lead electrocardiogram. We found a 3.8 % prevalence of athletes with high cardiovascular risk and 76.3 % had findings consistent with the “heart of the athlete”. We conclude that electrocardiographic screening is a valid clinical strategy for detection of young athletes with cardiovascular risk for sudden cardiac death.
Keywords : Electrocardiography; Physical Examination; Screening; Sudden Cardiac Death.