Sudden Cardiac Death in Athletes

Abstract

Background: Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a main leading cause of death in athletes. It is an unexpected and life-threatening event that occurs suddenly and even without any clinical presentation. Usually, it occurs due to malfunction in electro-physiology of the heart or if the athlete has an underlying cardiac condition, which leads to ventricular arrhythmias immediately post vigorous exercise or training. It is most common in recreational or competitive sports and has higher incidence of cases in younger athletes (<35 years) and older athletes (> 35years) with an underlying cardiac condition. Though it has a rare chance of occurrence, but it can have a crucial impact on the sports community. In efforts to anticipate sudden cardiac death in athletes, highly recommended preventive measures such as pre-participation screening are used. The present review of literature includes the causes, epidemiology, pathophysiology and preventive measures to avoid sudden cardiac death among athletes. Methods: Multiple database and search engines such as Google scholar, PubMed and Scopus were used to search for relevant literature with the keywords such as sudden cardiac death, athletes, sudden cardiac arrest, adaptations to exercise, causes and prevention of SCD. Results: From the reviewed literature, cardiac causes were found to be the main source of SCD. However, causes other than cardiac ones, and vigorous exercise were also found to be a major factor for SCD. Higher incidence was observed in cases with a coexisting cardiac issue. Both young and old aged athletes were found to be affected by SCD. Conclusion: SCD incidence varies among athletes according to their age, sex or type and intensity of sports. Preventive measures such as pre-participation screening (PPS) are highly recommended for athletes.

Keywords: Athletes, Sudden cardiac arrest, Sudden cardiac death, Sports-related death, Vigorous exercise.

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