How useful is the physical exam in detecting potentially serious structural heart disease?

Part of the BJSM’s Knowledge Translation blog series In young athletes, pre-participation screening is recommended to detect heart disease which can increase risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD) – but how useful is the physical exam in detecting potentially serious structural heart disease, and what is the best way to identify at-risk patients while avoiding […]

Read More…

Updated guidelines for sports and exercise cardiology – The Brazil Society of Cardiology and Brazilian Society of Exercise and Sports Medicine

  In 2013 The Brazilian Society of Cardiology and Brazilian Society of Exercise and Sports Medicine published The Brazilian Guidelines for Sports and Exercise Cardiology.1 This year, these same societies updated the guidelines in keeping with the latest evidence in the field. You can view the update here: The Updated Guidelines for Sports and Exercise […]

Read More…

And the winner of best 2016 BJSM cover is..

…SPORTS CARDIOLOGY: LOWERING RISK IN ATHLETES is the winning cover for 2016! Thank you to everyone that voted. The IOC Exercise & Pregnancy in Athletes Expert Group issue came in a close second. We caught up with Dr. Jonathan Drezner, Editor of the Sports Cardiology issue, to ask him a few questions. BJSM: Congratulations! How do […]

Read More…

Are elite athletes at higher risk of developing cardiovascular abnormalities than the average citizen?

By Javier S. Morales (MSc), Pedro L. Valenzuela (MSc), and Adrián Castillo García (MSc): @Fissac_es High performance sport is a focal point for the media, and sadly, cases of sudden death in elite athletes appear in the news with relative frequency. These news added to findings such as those of Pellicia et al. (2016), who reported an […]

Read More…

International Criteria for ECG Interpretation in Athletes- Top Ranked Journals Publish Consensus Guidelines

The new “International Criteria for ECG Interpretation in Athletes” consensus guidelines have been published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine and co-published in two prestigious cardiology journals, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and the European Heart Journal. “This consensus guideline is a major milestone in the cardiovascular care of athletes,” said lead author and AMSSM past-president […]

Read More…

Cardiovascular screening in athletes: time to refocus!

By Dave Siebert, MD, @DaveMSiebert When medical students learn about hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), one fact often resonates as a shocking and tragic reality: it frequently first presents as sudden death. Yet HCM is just one of a heterogeneous list of pathologic structural and electrical cardiac disorders that can cause sudden death in athletes without prior warning. […]

Read More…

Counseling athletes with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; a difficult task for the sports physician.

By Dr. Tijmen van Assen, Wouter van Everdingen, and Prabath Lodewijks Recently the combined American Heart Association / American College of Cardiology (AHA/ACC) taskforces defined eligibility and disqualification recommendations for competitive athletes with cardiovascular abnormalities [1]. In this blog we discuss the recommendations of the task force concerning hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). HCM is the most common non-traumatic […]

Read More…

AMSSM and FIFA Hold 2nd Summit on ECG Interpretation in Athletes with top Worldwide Sports Cardiology Experts

Focus on scientifically driven ECG interpretation standards, developing clear guide to the proper evaluation of ECG abnormalities in athletes and updates to Free Online Training Program for Physicians. SEATTLE, Wash. – In a continued effort to help physicians more accurately interpret ECG results to improve cardiac safety in athletes and impact sudden cardiac death, the American Medical Society […]

Read More…

Life saved in semi final of SAFF Championship 2013 by FIFA-supplied AED (FMEB – FIFA Medical Emergency Bag)

Preventing sudden cardiac death was a critical forum topic at the 2012 FIFA Medical Conference in Budapest.  Advocates argued that pitch-side automated external defibrillators (AED) be required at FIFA competitions all over the world. In the last 5 years, only 24 of 84 football players who suffered cardiac arrest survived. Tragically, there was no AED available at the stadium in 80% […]

Read More…