September 22, 2006 - Naperville District 203 freshmen to be screened for risk of Sudden Cardiac Death
Naperville District
203 freshmen to be screened for risk of Sudden Cardiac Death
What: Young
Hearts For Life™ Cardiac Screening
When: Tuesdy,
September 26 from 7:45 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where:
Midwest Heart
Foundation is on a mission to prevent the death of young athletes through the
Young Hearts for Life™ Cardiac Screening program. Each week sudden cardiac
death claims the lives of more than 6 young adults in the
An
electrocardiogram (abbreviated ECG or EKG), which records the heart’s
electrical activity, can signal the presence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or
HCM as it is called for short. HCM is a genetic abnormality present in one in
500 people. It enlarges the left ventricle of the heart, which in turn can
trigger fatal heart-rhythm disturbances. An EKG detects certain impulse
patterns or “markers” associated with HCM that a stethoscope cannot.
The mission of
Young Hearts For Life™ Cardiac Screening, a new EKG-screening program created
by Midwest Heart Foundation, is to identify students with HCM before it can
kill them literally in mid-stride.
“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 Tuesday, September 26, at
The
Young Hearts for Life™ Cardiac Screening program is sponsored by
Special
thanks to Burdick, Caligor,
Medically
compelling case for screening
HCM annually
claims the lives of 200 to 300 high school and college students who play
sports—many of whom, up to the moment of death, may have appeared physically
robust and even gifted with exceptional athletic talent.
Tragically, the
general circumstances of their deaths can be very similar. A young athlete
abruptly collapses during vigorous exercise such as a sports competition or
practice, and dies. Distraught parents, relatives and friends often first hear
about HCM after an autopsy confirms it was the cause of death. They are left to
grieve knowing that an EKG might have alerted physicians in time to begin
treatment, which can help HCM patients live to a near normal life span.
Many people, upon learning about EKG
screenings for HCM, ask, “Why hasn’t this been done sooner?” It has. In
A series of reports published in
mid-2005 in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal
examined this issue.* Both noted that European countries are far more aggressive
in their pursuit of diagnosing HCM and other heart defects in teenagers and
young adults.
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.
Overcoming barriers to screening
One of the most
common objections to adding a routine EKG screening to standard sports
physicals raised by American medical groups is that about 10 percent will
result in false positive test results, requiring those students to undergo
further testing only to be told an abnormality is not present. That situation
begs the question: Which is worse, dealing with a false positive or with the
death of a son or daughter?
Young Hearts For Life™ Cardiac
Screening seeks to raise public awareness of HCM and promote prevention efforts
by working with parents within the supportive environment of their neighborhood
schools, to facilitate screenings.
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 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