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Pre-participation screening for the prevention of sudden cardiac death in athletes
Paolo Borrione, Federico Quaranta, Emanuela Ciminelli, Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, University of Rome “Foro Italico”, 00194 Rome, Italy
Author contributions: Quaranta F and Ciminelli E contributed equally in writing the article and in reviewing the literature; Borrione P contributed in the conception, design, writing and final approval of the article.
Correspondence to: Paolo Borrione, MD, Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, University of Rome “Foro Italico”, Piazza Lauro de Bosis 15, 00194 Rome, Italy. paolo.borrione@uniroma4.it
Telephone: +39-6-36733569 Fax: +39-6-36733344
Received: February 23, 2013
Revised: March 9, 2013
Accepted: March 18, 2013
Published online: March 26, 2013
Revised: March 9, 2013
Accepted: March 18, 2013
Published online: March 26, 2013
Core Tip
Core tip: The review underlines the different incidence of sudden cardiac death (SCD) and the reason of this discrepancy as well as the different kind of approach to competitive athletes in Italy and United States. We emphasize the importance of electrocardiogram (ECG) as a simple and economical diagnostic tool, considering the opportunity of implementing the pre-participation screening (PPS) with echocardiogram, in order to detect mild structural cardiac diseases. After a cost-effectiveness analysis we finally suggest an innovative proposal in order to further prevent SCD: a rapid but focused echocardiogram assessment during the first PPS in addition to physical examination and ECG.