Back to Search
Start Over
Incidence and Etiology of Sudden Cardiac Death: New Updates for Athletic Departments
- Source :
- Sports Health
- Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- Context: Sudden cardiac death (SCD) in a young athlete is a tragic event and is the leading medical cause of death in this population. The precise incidence of SCD in young athletes has been subject of debate, with studies reporting drastically different rates (1:917,000 athlete-years (AYs) to 1:3000 AYs) depending on the methodological design of the investigation or the targeted population. Evidence Acquisition: A literature search was performed in PubMed using the terms: incidence, sudden cardiac death, sudden death, sudden cardiac arrest, etiology, pathology, registry, athlete, young, children, and adolescents. Articles were reviewed for relevance and included if they contained information on the incidence of SCD in athletes or young persons up to the age of 35 years. Study Design: Clinical review. Level of Evidence: Level 5. Results: Studies of high quality and rigor consistently yield an incidence of 1:50,000 AYs in college athletes and between 1:50,000 and 1:80,000 AYs for high school athletes, with certain subgroups that appear to be at particularly high risk, including the following: men, basketball players, and African Americans. Initial reports suggest that the most common cause of SCD is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). However, more comprehensive investigations in the United States and international populations—athletes, nonathletes, and military—support that the most common finding on autopsy in young individuals with SCD is actually a structurally normal heart (autopsy-negative sudden unexplained death). Conclusion: SCD is the leading cause of death in athletes during exercise and usually results from intrinsic cardiac conditions that are triggered by the physiologic demands of vigorous exercise. Current rates of SCD appear to be at least 4 to 5 times higher than previously estimated, with men, African Americans, and male basketball players being at greatest risk. Emerging data suggest that the leading finding associated with SCD in athletes is actually a structurally normal heart (autopsy-negative sudden unexplained death).
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
Pediatrics
etiology
Population
Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation
Context (language use)
030204 cardiovascular system & hematology
Sudden death
Sudden cardiac death
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
medicine
Humans
Mass Screening
Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
education
Students
Exercise
Cause of death
education.field_of_study
biology
business.industry
Athletes
Incidence (epidemiology)
Incidence
Sudden cardiac arrest
030229 sport sciences
Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic
medicine.disease
biology.organism_classification
Current Research
United States
Death, Sudden, Cardiac
Military Personnel
Physical therapy
Autopsy
athlete
cardiovascular screening
medicine.symptom
business
Sports
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 19410921
- Volume :
- 9
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Sports health
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....838a2f7203c897054370ceec7ab5c117