November 27, 2006 - 6000 high school students screened for risk of sudden cardiac death following the deaths of 2 students over the last 2 years
6000 high school
students screened for risk of sudden cardiac death following the deaths of 2
students over the last 2 years
What: Young
Hearts For Life™ Cardiac Screening
When: Thursday,
November 30, 2006 & Friday, December 1, 2006, from 7:45 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where:
Parents,
teachers and healthcare providers are banding together in
Each
week sudden cardiac death claims the lives of more than 6 young adults in the
Young Hearts for Life Cardiac
Screening™ created by Midwest Heart Foundation is a new screening program
designed to identify students at risk for sudden cardiac death. Hypertrophic
Cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common cause of sudden death in young adults
comprising more than one-third of cases.
HCM is a genetic abnormality present in approximately one in 500 people.
Other causes of sudden cardiac death include congenital coronary anomalies,
long QT syndrome, Arrhythmogenic right ventricular
cardiomyopathy (ARVC),
Brugada syndrome and Marfan’s Disease. Some of
these conditions may also be detected by EKG screening.
An
electrocardiogram (abbreviated ECG or EKG), which records the heart’s
electrical activity detects certain impulse patterns or “markers” associated
with HCM that a stethoscope cannot. HCM enlarges the left ventricle of the
heart, which in turn can trigger fatal heart-rhythm disturbances.
“Early
detection is essential; you cannot treat what has not been diagnosed,” explains
Dr. Marek.
MHF,
in partnership with Naperville District 203, has scheduled the next Young
Hearts For Life™ Cardiac Screening beginning at 7:45a.m., on Thursday, November
30th and Friday, December 1, 2006, at
Students
who participate (with their parents’ permission) will be given an EKG.
Throughout the process, their confidentiality, privacy and individual modesty
will be respected. Girls will be screened by female technicians in an area
separate from boys. A report of each student’s test results is mailed to the
home address of record.
Medically compelling case for screening
A
young athlete abruptly collapses during vigorous exercise such as a basketball
game or practice, and dies. Distraught parents, relatives and friends often
first hear about HCM after an autopsy confirms it was the cause of death. HCM
annually claims the lives of 200 to 300 young athletes-many of whom, up to the
moment of death, may have appeared physically robust and even gifted with
exceptional athletic talent.
European
countries are far more aggressive in their pursuit of diagnosing HCM and other
heart defects in teenagers and young adults. A series of reports published in
mid-2005 in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal
examined this issue. *
In fact,
the International Olympic Committee deemed the case for screening was so
medically compelling that it called for young athletes to be tested every two
years, starting at age 12 or 14. (HCM may not appear until late adolescence, so
a negative screening at age 12 may be followed by a positive repeat test at age
14 or older.) The committee’s recommendation was quickly followed by a
statement published in the European Heart Journal calling for screenings
to be done across the continent.
One
of the most common objections raised by American medical groups to adding a
routine screening to sports physicals is that 10% of abnormal EKGs will result in false positive test results,
requiring those students to undergo further testing only to be told an
abnormality is not present.
Young
Hearts For Life™ Cardiac Screening seeks to raise public awareness of HCM and
sudden cardiac death. In presentations before school groups, Dr. Marek asks the
audience to imagine the unbearable pain parents of young athletes with
undiagnosed HCM experience after receiving a phone call from the coroner
notifying them that their son or daughter died suddenly. He concludes, “As a
parent, can you imagine anything worse?”
The
Young Hearts for Life™ Cardiac Screening program is sponsored by
Special
thanks to Burdick, Caligor,
*
The Wall Street Journal Online, “Case Grows for Screening Young
Athletes For Dangerous Heart Conditions,” by Kevin Helliker and Kathryn
Kranhold, June 21,2005. The Wall Street Journal Online, “Doctors
Miss Signs of Heart Defects In Young Athletes,” by Kevin Helliker and Kathryn
Kranhold, June 23,2005. The New York Times—On The Web, “
Midwest Heart Foundation is a nonprofit research and education
foundation dedicated to improving the prevention and management of
cardiovascular and related diseases through research, education, and community
leadership. It was established in 1988 by the physicians of
Midwest Heart Specialists is a group of
55 cardiovascular physicians, including board certified cardiologists,
electrophysiologists, heart failure specialists, interventional radiologists
and a vascular medicine specialist offering comprehensive heart care. The group
has office locations in the northwest and western suburbs of