PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Do all student athletes need heart screenings?

University of Michigan heart specialists weigh in on how best to reduce sudden deaths in competitive athletes

2011-03-24
(Press-News.org) ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Seemingly every year there are reports of a young, apparently healthy athlete dying on the court or playing field.

The sudden death of Wes Leonard, a junior at Fennville High School, who died of cardiac arrest from an enlarged heart on March 3, may have parents and coaches wondering if enough is being done to identify athletes at risk for dying suddenly.

"We would like to develop a better screening program to help prevent sudden cardiac death, but there is not enough rigorous data to support what that should look like," says Sanjaya Gupta, M.D., clinical lecturer in the Division of Electrophysiology at the University of Michigan Health System.

Some communities have begun programs to perform more extensive heart testing, including electrocardiograms and sometimes echocardiograms on students before they compete.

Yet a task force organized by the American Heart Association to evaluate pre-participation screening practices has not supported such community programs due to a lack of evidence that they are able to reduce the number of sudden deaths.

A large trial recently completed in Israel concluded that mandatory ECG testing of athletes prior to sports participation did not reduce the number of deaths from sudden cardiac arrests.

"One of the major obstacles to developing a better screening process is that no one heart test is the best," says Mark Russell, M.D., a pediatric cardiologist at the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. "There are a number of different heart conditions that can cause sudden death in a young athlete.

"For some heart conditions, the ECG is the best test. For other heart problems, an echocardiogram is required," Russell says. "Unfortunately, both tests are usually normal in some individuals whose heart problem can only be diagnosed with an exercise stress test."

Furthermore, some conditions such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart, or dilated cardiomyopathy, the cause of death of the Fennville, Mich. Teen, can develop over time. A single screening may not detect the condition.

As many as 10 million to 12 million young athletes in the United States participate in competitive athletics, identifying which of those athletes is at significant risk of sudden death is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack, doctors say.

How can you responsibly identify the student who is at risk without excluding thousands of other students from participating in sports?

The most important step may be to ensure that the screening process outlined by the AHA is being performed as recommended. The AHA recommendations require that the screening form document 12 specific aspects of the student's personal medical history, his/hers family medical history and a physical exam. If any concerns are identified based on the initial screen, then referral to a cardiologist is recommended.

Unfortunately, until very recently, the pre-participation screening form approved by the state of Michigan only covered five of the 12 topics recommended by the AHA. Russell and other colleagues from U-M were involved in updating the Michigan pre-participation physical form available from the Michigan Department of Community Health. The updated form conforms to the AHA guidelines and will help improve the screening process.

Making sure that all Michigan schools, public and private, use the new forms and that the screenings are performed by physicians familiar with the guidelines is an important next step.

"Simply improving pre-participation screening forms and conducting electrocardiograms on properly selected children and adults may help reduce cardiac deaths," says Sharlene M. Day, M.D., director of the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Clinic at the U-M Cardiovascular Center. "It is also very important for athletes, their families, and their coaches to recognize potential warning signs, like a seizure, passing out, or shortness of breath."

Yet there is still more that can be done to try to reduce the incidence of sudden cardiac death.

U-M experts support having automated external defibrillators available in schools and training coaches and other school personnel on use and maintenance of the devices. Yearly training in basic life support or CPR for coaches and trainers will help them respond as quickly as possible in an emergency.

Emergency response training programs will have the added benefit of not only improving a school's ability to respond to an emergency that occurs on the sports field but to any emergencies that occur on school property. It will also prepare individuals who will take their emergency response skills to their home and to their community.

INFORMATION:

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Rapid etching X-rayed

2011-03-24
A breakthrough in the study of chemical reactions during etching and coating of materials was achieved by a research group headed by Kiel physicist, Professor Olaf Magnussen. The team from the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU), Germany, in collaboration with staff from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, have uncovered for the first time just what happens in manufacturing processes, used for the formation of metal contacts thinner than a human hair in modern consumer electronics, such as flat-screen television. The results ...

Ambrico Announces Brick Partnership with Clover Creek Brick Company

Ambrico Announces Brick Partnership with Clover Creek Brick Company
2011-03-24
Ambrico, creators of the popular E-Z Thin Brick installation system, have announced a new partnership with Clover Creek Brick Company of Kentucky. As providers of high quality clay brick and thin brick products, Ambrico is excited about this latest partnership, which brings Clover Creek's exclusive products directly to their customers. Specializing in high quality, tumbled bricks, Clover Creek has been producing materials at their historical production site for over 125 years, making them leaders in the clay brick industry. Ambrico, who has been recommending Clover ...

Even mild stress is linked to long-term disability

2011-03-24
Even relatively mild stress can lead to long term disability and an inability to work, reveals a large population based study published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. It is well known that mental health problems are associated with long term disability, but the impact of milder forms of psychological stress is likely to have been underestimated, say the authors. Between 2002 and 2007, the authors tracked the health of more than 17,000 working adults up to the age of 64, who had been randomly selected from the population in the Stockholm ...

International laws may be part of maritime piracy problem

2011-03-24
International piracy costs the shipping industry billions of dollars a year and leads to high-profile murders that make global headlines. Longstanding concerns over piracy have led to numerous international laws and conventions designed to keep pirates in check – but research from North Carolina State University shows that the tangled network of laws may actually be helping pirates escape justice. "We wanted to know why the international community is not working together and taking advantage of existing laws to address piracy, even as piracy is on the rise in places like ...

Long-term methadone treatment can affect the brain

2011-03-24
Methadone has been used to treat heroin addicts for nearly 50 years. Yet we have surprisingly incomplete knowledge about possible harmful effects from prolonged use. New research from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health shows that methadone affects the brain and impairs the attention of experimental animals. In general, opioids such as heroin and morphine are known to weaken intellectual functions such as learning, memory and attention. "It is therefore tempting to assume that methadone has similar effects," says researcher Jannike M. Andersen at the NIPH's Division ...

What's mine is virtually yours

2011-03-24
Applications on modern wireless devices make demands on data rate and connectivity far beyond anything experienced in the past. One way to meet these stringent requirements is to give the device multiple antennas or multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology. The problem of physically accommodating these additional antennas in the latest consumer products is investigated in new research from the University of Bristol. The study by academics in the field of antennas and propagation in the University's Centre for Communications Research (CCR) is published in the journal ...

Statins make radiation more effective at curing prostate cancer

2011-03-24
Men with high-risk prostate cancer who take statin drugs commonly used to lower cholesterol while receiving radiation therapy are less likely to have their cancer return than patients who do not take these medications, according to a study published in the March issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology•Biology•Physics, an official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). In the study, 1,681 men with high-risk, localized prostate cancer were treated with radiation therapy between 1995 and 2007. Of them, 382 (23 percent) were taking ...

Benefit of Disease Management Programs Remains Unclear

2011-03-24
It is not clear whether disease management programs (DMPs), which are expensive and involve a great deal of documentation, improve medical outcomes for participants. Roland Linder's working group present their results in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2011; 108[10]: 155󈞪). In 2009, DMPs in Germany cost around 1.1 billion euros; the larger part of this related to the DMP for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The authors investigated whether the T2DM DMP resulted in medical benefit for patients. To do this, they analyzed ...

A Product Defect May be the Cause of Your Bicycle Injury

2011-03-24
With 300 days of sunshine a year, it is no surprise that bicycling is a popular pastime in the State of Colorado. Whether for transportation or recreation, thousands of Coloradans take to the streets and trails all year long. Considering the sheer volume of cyclists in the state, some bike accidents will inevitably happen. Yet, many of those hurt while cycling fail to consider a possible cause of their injuries: bicycle defects. Bike product recalls are a common occurrence. A bicycle design or manufacturing defect can cause severe injury to the rider. Unfortunately, ...

First sex linked to better body image in men, not women

2011-03-24
Having sex for the first time can improve or degrade your self-image depending on whether you are male or female, according to Penn State researchers. On average, college-age males become more satisfied with their appearance after first intercourse, whereas college-age females become slightly less satisfied. "We're not talking about 12-year-old girls having sex, so it's striking that even among these young women -- who are 17 or older when they first had sex -- their images of themselves went down," said Eva S. Lefkowitz, associate professor of human development and family ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Making regular GPS ultra-precise

Webb Telescope unveils doomed star hidden in dust

UT Southwestern preventive cardiologist to receive the 2025 Chairman’s Award

Slime mold metabolites are a promising, eco-friendly repellent of root-knot nematodes

Pathological mechanism of mechanosensitive cells driving the growth of keloids

First large-scale Alzheimer disease study in brain tissue from African American donors implicates roles for many novel genes

In a nasal spray, gold “nanoparticles” deliver a targeted treatment to the brain. A potentially revolutionary approach to mental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases already has a patent

Current and recommended diets in the USA have embedded forced labor risk

AI breakthrough helps astronomers spot cosmic events with just a handful of examples

New vaccine shows promise against typhoid and invasive salmonella in first human trial

Engineered “natural killer” cells could help fight cancer

New 3D printing method ‘grows’ ultra-strong materials

Lizard genetics provide new perspective on evolution

Can a Stevia-derived sweetener improve hair loss treatment?

Method to assess the status of wild reindeer may help with conservation efforts

Do imported cut flowers spread livestock viruses?

Does prior incarceration contribute to poor health later in life?

Could slime mold microbes be a source of potent antimicrobials?

Record-breaking 2024 Amazon fires drive unprecedented carbon emissions and ecosystem degradation

Birds thrive despite pollution from ‘forever’ chemicals

Deadwood brings wild orchids to life

Changes in gut microbiota influence which patients get AIG-related neuroendocrine tumors

Medicaid expansion linked to improved long-term survival in cancer patients

Women with surgical menopause may exit workforce earlier, but hormone therapy could help

Trailblazing Young Scientists honored with $250,000 prizes at Blavatnik National Awards Gala

Revolutionary blood test for ME / Chronic Fatigue unveiled

Calorie labelling linked to 2% average reduction in energy content of menu items

Widely prescribed opioid painkiller tramadol not that effective for easing chronic pain

Exercise snacks may boost cardiorespiratory fitness of physically inactive adults

15,000 women a year with breast cancer could benefit from whole genome sequencing, say researchers

[Press-News.org] Do all student athletes need heart screenings?
University of Michigan heart specialists weigh in on how best to reduce sudden deaths in competitive athletes