Value of screening for the risk of sudden cardiac death in young competitive athletes.

Aims: This study aimed to report the long-term findings of the Italian programme of cardiovascular preparticipation screening (PPS) in young, competitive athletes.

Methods And Results: The study assessed the diagnostic yield for diseases at risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD), the costs of serial evaluations, and the long-term outcomes of PPS in a large population of Italian children (age range, 7-18 years). The PPS was repeated annually and included medical history, physical examination, resting electrocardiogram, and stress testing; additional tests were reserved for athletes with abnormal findings.

The Italian preparticipation evaluation programme: diagnostic yield, rate of disqualification and cost analysis.

Introduction: Italian law mandates that every competitive athlete must undergo annual preparticipation evaluation (PPE) to identify cardiovascular (CV) diseases that pose a risk of sudden death (SD) during sport and other conditions that may threaten the athlete's health. We investigated the diagnostic yield, rate of disqualification and costs of our PPE.

Methods: We included 5910 consecutive apparently healthy athletes (61% males, mean age 15±4 years) who underwent annual PPE performed by a sports medicine specialist.