Yes, by having a doctor listen to the heart and take a history of heart problems, not with the more extensive testing.
The debate over cardiac screening for young athletes heated up earlier this month when an impressive 26-year Italian study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It showed that a nationwide screening program lowered the incidence of sudden deaths from a heart problem by 89 percent. In Italy, young athletes are screened with electrocardiograms (EKGs), which can detect potentially fatal disturbances in heart rhythms.
“This is a very good study, but it doesn’t prove everybody needs an EKG,” said Dr. Paul Thompson [cq] a cardiologist at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut who is advising the American Heart Association on the problem.
For one thing, the sudden cardiac death rate among Italian athletes despite the screening was about one in 250,000, “the same as we have in the US without such an elaborate system,” he said.
“It’s hard for people to understand that screening can make more problems,” he said. But any abnormality on an EKG can trigger further testing that can end up keeping young people out of sports for “funky little things” that might never cause serious problems. said.
Granted, just listening to the heart and taking a history “”may not do enough” to detect potentially fatal problems such as thickening of the pumping chamber of the heart, said Dr. Barry Maron [cq], of the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.
But even if we had all the money in the world,” said Maron, more extensive screening “would still be a resource issue. With 10 million young people playing sports, it could cost $1 billion per year to screen them as the Italians do.” Worried parents can always pay for EKGs or echocardiograms out of pocket if they choose to. And all parents of athletes can pay attention to warning signs such as a fainting spell that could indicate heart problems.