Posted on 12/11/2003 6:48:06 AM PST by stainlessbanner
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teens and young adults who regularly train and compete in sports are more than twice as likely to experience sudden death than non-athletes, according to a new study.
The findings are based on death rates from more than 1 million young Italians, of whom 112,790 were competitive athletes.
In most cases, sudden death among athletes was due to an underlying heart condition, such as coronary artery disease. As a result, the study authors, led by Dr. Domenico Corrado of the University of Padua, write that engaging in sports likely triggers death from another cause, and does not, by itself, endanger athletes' lives.
Corrado and his team recommend that athletes continue to be screened for underlying heart conditions, and that experts work to devise new screening tools that can detect conditions that current techniques miss.
During the study, reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology December 3rd, the researchers noted instances of sudden death among all people aged 12 to 35 between 1979 and 1999.
In that time period, 300 teens and young adults experienced sudden cardiac death, 55 of whom were athletes. Among athletes, 2.3 out of 100,000 people experienced sudden death every year, while non-athletes showed a sudden death risk of less than one out of 100,000 people each year.
Among athletes who experienced sudden cardiac death, there were ten times as many men as women.
In all but four of the cases of sudden death in athletes, the death was caused by cardiovascular disease.
Almost 90 percent of sudden deaths in athletes occurred either while or shortly after exercising, while physical activity was linked to only 9 percent of instances of sudden death among non-athletes.
Dr. Roberta G. Williams of the University of Southern California and the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, who wrote an accompanying editorial, explained to Reuters Health that the physical effort and excitement involved in competitive sports may trigger an abnormal heart rhythm in some people with conditions that put their hearts at risk.
Alternatively, she said that some athletes may have a type of disease that impedes the flow of blood from the heart, and dehydration and heat from heavy exercise may exacerbate the condition.
In their editorial, Williams and her co-author write that the results from Italian athletes may not apply to athletes from all parts of the world. For instance, the athletes included in the study were mostly white, and Italians have a genetic makeup and dietary habits that differ from other regions.
Whether that means the rate of sudden death among U.S. athletes is higher or lower than that seen among Italian athletes, however, is still unknown, and that question should be the focus of future research, Williams said.
"In any country, better understanding of the specific causes of sudden death in that specific population is the key to planning appropriate and effective interventions," Williams added.
SOURCE: Journal of the American College of Cardiology, December 3 2003.
At least it was Italy spending money on studies like this instead of the US. Glad to see stupidity in Gov't money allocation is not solely a US problem.
In that time period, 300 teens and young adults experienced sudden cardiac death, 55 of whom were athletes.
The above statement to me appears to contradict the following statement.
Among athletes, 2.3 out of 100,000 people experienced sudden death every year, while non-athletes showed a sudden death risk of less than one out of 100,000 people each year.
Unless I am reading this wrong, it would appear that a greater chance of sudden death exits among non-athletes?
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