ECG screening for SCD in young adults: community volunteers can acquire higher quality ECGs than health professionals.

Background And Purpose: ECG screening of young athletes for risk of sudden cardiac death has grown in popularity throughout the world. The purpose of this study is to assess the technical error rate of ECGs acquired by appropriately trained community volunteers compared to that reported in the literature utilizing trained medical personnel.

Methods: This is a retrospective study analyzing consecutive ECGs acquired during 5 successive high school screenings at 3 separate schools in 2011.