Why Screening is Important in Student Athletes

Sudden cardiac death kills an estimated 100 to 1,000 children in the U.S. every year. This estimate range is so wide because reliable records of the deaths haven’t been kept. 

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Because many young people with heart conditions never have symptoms, the diseases typically aren’t caught until after a tragedy. Wes L. was a 16-year-old high school basketball player from Michigan, who collapsed after shooting a game-winning shot in 2011. He was pronounced dead from sudden cardiac arrest due to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). 

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On the other hand, Christopher S. was a high school freshman and track runner when doctors found an abnormality in his heart, and diagnosed him with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, one of the most common causes of sudden cardiac death(SCD). His disease was caught on an electrocardiogram (ECG), a test of the heart’s electrical signals, done by volunteer doctors who visited his school as part of a community screening program. 

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Watching out for subtle symptoms in young athletes or encouraging children and their families to get screened if they have family history of heart disease could save a child's life. Coaches who watch children practice for hours every week or family members who live with these children should be on the lookout for anything different and keep SCD and Cardiomyopathy in the back of their minds when seeing their kids do physical activity.