Pre-participation screening of all competitive athletes is recommended in some countries
and mandated in others to prevent sudden cardiac death in predisposed athletes. Whilst
the prevalence of some conditions, which are screened for such as coronary artery
anomalies and long QT syndromes, are stable across different populations, the prevalence
of underlying conditions such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and arrhythmogenic right
ventricular dysplasia shows considerable geographic variability. Evidence exists that
screening reduces sudden death, but the potential negative impact of exclusion from
sport has not been quantified. Australia has a high rate of participation in sport
and needs to consider whether screening is feasible, effective and affordable. It
is difficult to make this decision currently as there is little information about
the scope of the problem in Australia and whether the prevalence of underlying conditions
which predispose to sudden cardiac death is similar or different to that in other
countries. We review the evidence for and against screening and propose that systematic
collection of Australian data is required before routine pre-participation screening
can be introduced in Australia.
Keywords
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© 2010 Australasian Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons and the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
