Cardiovascular diseases as a cause of sudden death in athletes
Halawa, B.Å‚
Polski Merkuriusz Lekarski Organ Polskiego Towarzystwa Lekarskiego 16(91): 5-7
2004
ISSN/ISBN: 1426-9686 PMID: 15074012 Document Number: 578456
Cardiac arrhythmias are the reason of the most sudden deaths in athletes. The annual risk of sudden death at athletes is between 5 to 10 per one million. Benign arrhythmia including bradyarrhythmias, atrial and ventricular premature contractions are common in the athletes. Supraventricular arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation, nodal reciprocal entrant tachycardia and Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome are less common. Perhaps the rarest and the most dangerous arrhythmias are ventricular arrhythmias, among them arrhythmias secondary to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia, long QT syndrome, and anomalous origin of coronary arteries. Asymptomatic bradyarrhythmias (if the heart rate in bradyarrhythmia appropriate increases with exercise), supraventricularis tachycardias, and atrial premature contractions without structural heart disease are not the contraindication to sports Athletes with premature ventricular contraction, nonsustained ventricular tachycardia and non structural heart disease are without athletic restrictions as long as the arrhythmias do not worsen and they not cause dyspnea or presyncope during exertion. Frequent or multiform premature ventricular contraction or sustained ventricular tachycardia indicate a higher risk, and all participation in athletic should be restricted.