Dear AuntMinnie Member,
It's becoming an all-too-common scenario -- a young athlete collapses and dies on the field of play. An autopsy reveals that the player had a cardiac arrhythmia that had gone undetected and that was triggered by physical exertion.
Could such deaths be prevented through screening? And if so, what is the role of imaging? These are some of the questions addressed in a new article we're featuring this week in our Cardiac Imaging Digital Community.
The U.S. currently offers no organized national program for screening adolescents entering athletic programs. But screening programs have been set up in other countries, most notably Italy, which requires mandatory screening for every citizen playing competitive sports.
Experts differ on whether such a program would be cost-effective in the U.S., and even which screening technologies should be used. Some guidelines call for simply checking heart sounds and blood pressure for signs of arrhythmia, while others believe that imaging technologies like echocardiography could be useful.
Read all about the controversy by clicking here, or visit our Cardiac Imaging Digital Community at cardiac.auntminnie.com for a world of news about cardiac imaging.
