Science Current Events | Science News | Brightsurf.com
 
Email a Friend Send to a friend
Printer Friendly Print Should we use echocardiography to screen young athletes?

Should we use echocardiography to screen young athletes?

September 02, 2008

Sudden and unexpected deaths in young competitive athletes are uncommon but highly visible events, which raise concern and ethical issues in both the lay public and medical community. Which is the best strategy to timely identify individuals with cardiac disease responsible for sudden death (primarily, HCM) is largely debated. Namely, the extent to which sophisticated testing, such as echocardiography, is needed is still undefined.

To address this question, we carried out an echocardiographic assessment of the structural cardiac diseases in a population of 4,450 athletes, initially judged free of cardiac disease and eligible for competition on the basis of pre participation screening with 12-lead ECG.




None of the 4,450 athletes showed evidence of HCM. Other cardiac abnormalities were detected in only 12 athletes, including myocarditis (n=4), mitral valve prolapse (n=3), Marfan's syndrome (n=2), aortic regurgitation with bicuspid valve (n=2), and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (n=1). In addition, 4 athletes were identified with borderline LV wall thickness (i.e., 13 mm) in the "gray-zone" between HCM and athlete's heart. In 2 of these athletes, subsequent genetic analysis or clinical changes over an average 8-year follow-up resulted, respectively, in a diagnosis of HCM.

In conclusion, the pre participation screening program including 12-lead ECG appears to be efficient in identifying young athletes with HCM, leading to their timely disqualification from competitive sports. These data also suggest that routine echocardiography is not an obligatory component of large population screening programs designed to identify young athletes with HCM.

European Society of Cardiology



Related Echocardiography Current Events and Echocardiography News Articles Echocardiography Current Events and Echocardiography News RSS Echocardiography Current Events and Echocardiography News RSS
Women with Mitral Valve Prolapse are Treated Less Aggressively Than Men and May be at High Risk
Disturbing evidence of higher mortality and lower surgery rates in women versus men with mitral valve prolapse and severe leakage may be related to the complexity of evaluating the condition's severity in women, according to findings of a Mayo Clinic study published this month in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The future of non-invasive cardiac imaging
Imaging has gained attention in many areas of medicine but its relevance and importance in clinical cardiology cannot be underestimated.

Cardiac ultrasound imaging goes to handheld
Cardiac ultrasound imaging, also known as echocardiography, has been recently challenged by several new imaging methods.

Serum sodium predicts mortality 10 times higher in PAH patients
Patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)-chronically high blood pressure in the blood vessels of the lungs-whose serum sodium levels are low (called hyponatremia, or HN) have a very poor chance of survival and a high rate of right-heart failure (RHF), according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania.

New 3-D ultrasound could improve stroke diagnosis, care
Using 3-D ultrasound technology they designed, Duke University bioengineers can compensate for the thickness and unevenness of the skull to see in real-time the arteries within the brain that most often clog up and cause strokes.

Mass. General study shows how exercise changes structure and function of heart
For the first time researchers are beginning to understand exactly how various forms of exercise impact the heart. Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators, in collaboration with the Harvard University Health Services, have found that 90 days of vigorous athletic training produces significant changes in cardiac structure and function and that the type of change varies with the type of exercise performed.

Extremely low dose CT coronary angiography shows promise in assessing cardiac function
Extremely low dose CT coronary angiography can be used to measure cardiac function and has the potential for use when other commonly used examinations are limited, a preliminary study indicates.

New Research Shows Benefits of Ultrasound Contrast Agents Outweigh Potential Risk to Heart Patients
ST. LOUIS - A Saint Louis University cardiologist called upon the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday to reconsider a strong warning it recently placed on a diagnostic tool, stating that the warning could prevent doctors from detecting life-threatening cardiac events.

Sewer-gas-induced suspended animation is rapid and reversible
Low doses of the toxic gas responsible for the unpleasant odor of rotten eggs can safely and reversibly depress both metabolism and aspects of cardiovascular function in mice, producing a suspended-animation-like state.

Eat less or exercise more? Either way leads to more youthful hearts
Overweight people who lose a moderate amount of weight get an immediate benefit in the form of better heart health, according to a study conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. And the heart improvements happen whether that weight is shed by eating less or exercising more.
More Echocardiography Current Events and Echocardiography News Articles


Echocardiography Pocketcard Set
by Raghu Vidhun

Pocket-sized laminated card offers quick access to instructions on how to read an ECG. Includes tamponade vs. cardiomyopathy, differential diagnosis, abnormal LV filling patterns, estimation of right atrial pressure, normal diastolic indices, classification of diastolic dysfunction, and more. For...



Textbook of Clinical Echocardiography
by Catherine Otto

The new edition of Dr. Otto's benchmark text of echocardiography is a must for everyone learning echo for the first time, or re-learning the essential concepts. Dr. Otto's writing style engages the reader and makes difficult concepts easy to understand. New to this edition is a discussion of new echo techniques including contrast and 3D and how they fit into the echo practice. All echo images...



Echocardiography, Sixth Edition
by Harvey Feigenbaum, William F. Armstrong, Thomas Ryan

The thoroughly revised Sixth Edition of Feigenbaum's Echocardiography reflects recent changes in the technology and clinical use of echocardiography. Included are detailed discussions of tissue Doppler imaging, harmonic imaging and its impact on tissue and contrast visualization, new applications of myocardial perfusion and three-dimensional echocardiography. Emphasizing the clinical importance...



Practical Perioperative Transoesophageal Echocardiography: Text with CD-ROM
by David Sidebotham, Alan Merry, Malcolm Leggett, Gary Bashein

Transesophageal Echocardiography is routinely used for perioperative and postoperative monitoring of cardiac patients. This book is a practical guide for the anaesthetist or intensivist, covering the principles and techniques of diagnosis and...



Practice of Clinical Echocardiography: Text with DVD-ROM
by Catherine M. Otto

Dr. Otto's best-selling text not only explains how to qualitatively and quantitatively interpret echocardiographic images and Doppler flow data, but also outlines how this information affects your clinical decision making. This edition features new chapters on tissue doppler, intracardiac echocardiography, hand-held echocardiography, and echocardiography in inherited connective tissue disorders....



Essential Echocardiography: A Practical Handbook with DVD (Contemporary Cardiology)

Essential Echocardiography: A Practical Handbook With DVD serves as today's premier practical guide to the understanding of the most commonly used cardiac imaging technique in the world. The perfect marriage between anatomy and physiology, the text covers emerging cardiac imaging technologies, advances in ultrasound technology, as well as new techniques and applications of cardiac ultrasound. In...



Echocardiography Board Review: 400 Multiple Choice Questions With Discussion
by Ramdas Pai, Padmini Varadarajan

Obtaining an echocardiogram is a complex procedure with a need for constant enhancement and improvement of skills in the area for both ultrasound technician and physician. Owing to the increasing complexity of the echocardiogram and its interpretation, upon which patient care heavily relies, various professional bodies have been introducing competency exams. This unique book has been...



Atlas of Intraoperative Transesophageal Echocardiography: Surgical and Radiologic Correlations, Text with DVD
by Donald Oxorn, Catherine M. Otto

This outstanding new atlas makes it easy to interpret intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography findings for both healthy and diseased patients. A multidisciplinary team uses clinical case studies to explore the characteristic intraoperative TEE findings for every type of cardiac abnormality, along with correlative imaging and pathology findings. Videos on the accompanying DVD demonstrate...



Echocardiography Review Guide
by Catherine M. Otto, Rebecca G. Schwaegler

This review manual to accompany the Textbook of Clinical Echocardiography, widely considered the ultimate reference for learning and understanding echocardiography, is your clinical case companion for understanding the basics or for brushing up on your current techniques. Easy-to-follow procedures on using and interpreting echo appear in every chapter. This versatile volume is the ideal review...



A Practical Approach to Transesophageal Echocardiography

Now in its Second Edition, with full-color illustrations throughout, this practical manual provides a basic introduction to the "how-to's" of diagnostic and intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography. It covers all types of heart surgery in which TEE is used and addresses clinical challenges in specific settings such as the ICU and anatomic regions such as the thoracic aorta. Each chapter...

© 2008 BrightSurf.com