Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Find A Doctor

by location

by last name

by specialty

January 17, 2007 - Naperville District 203 high school students screened for risk of Sudden Cardiac Death

Naperville District 203 high school students screened for risk of Sudden Cardiac Death

What:     Young Hearts For Life™ Cardiac Screening

When:    Friday, January 17, 2007, from 7:45 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Where:   Naperville Central High School

440 Aurora Ave.

Naperville, Illinois 60540

 

Parents, teachers and healthcare providers are banding together in Naperville Illinois in an effort to prevent the loss of their most precious commodity….their children. With an army of over 200 parent volunteers, the families in Naperville District #203 are joining Midwest Heart Foundation on a mission to prevent the death of young adults through the Young Hearts for Life™ Cardiac Screening program.  The loss of a child is devastating for a community. What if these deaths could be prevented in the future?

 

Each week sudden cardiac death claims the lives of more than 6 young adults in the United States. An overwhelming body of scientific evidence points to a serious omission in routine pre-participation sports physicals, namely a simple, noninvasive test that can detect the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young athletes.  Joseph Marek M.D., a research cardiologist with Midwest Heart Specialists and member of the Board of Directors of the Midwest Heart Foundation (MHF), has made this test available to thousands of students in Naperville School District 203 this fall.

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, ARVC, Brugada syndrome and Marfan’s Disease. Some of these conditions may also be detected by EKG screening.

“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 Friday, January 19th, 2007, at Naperville Central High School, 440 W. Aurora Avenue, Naperville. Approximately 3500 high school students have been screened through the Young Hearts for Life™ program in the last year.

 

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 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. 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 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.

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 Edward Hospital, St. Jude Medical, Dr. Joseph Marek & Family and Dr. Vincent Bufalino & Family.

 

Special thanks to Burdick, Caligor, Edward Hospital & Elmhurst Hospital for their donation of screening supplies.

 

* 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, “U.S. and Europe Differ on Testing Athletes for Rare Heart Ailment,” by Jere Longman, June 23, 2005.

 

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.