Abstract
Sudden cardiac death is always a dramatic event and, besides raising issues and questions, makes it doubtful whether it is possible to predict it somehow; its impact is even greater when it confirms that competitive athletes, by definition, should be the healthiest and most controlled population. Behind these deaths there is, in most cases, a structural disease, often on a genetic basis and previously unidentified, such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy [1–2]. Nevertheless there are a series of diseases that could lead to arrhythmic sudden cardiac death without evident macroscopic or histopathological cardiac alterations; the current classification includes these along with genetic primary cardiomyopathies under the name of ion channel disorders [3]: long QT syndrome (LQTS), Brugada syndrome (BS), short QT syndrome (SQTS), catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT).
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Picciolo, G. (2012). Non-Structural Causes of Sudden Death. In: Fioranelli, M., Frajese, G. (eds) Sports Cardiology. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2775-6_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2775-6_21
Publisher Name: Springer, Milano
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