Abstract
Rare, unexpected — and usually unexplainable — sudden cardiac death (SCD) in young student athletes appears to be occurring more frequently, especially with the prevalent reporting of such events via the Internet and other mass media. The literature presently contains contradictory reports as to the incidence of SCD in young persons [1–5]. The Minneapolis Heart Foundation released a survey spanning a 27-year period and conservatively quantified the phenomenon as occurring about 60 to 70 times per year in the United States; however, only athletes were considered and mainly Internet-based records were consulted [4]. In a similar study, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) reported an incidence of 1 in 43,770/year in collegiate-level athletes in the United States. Some commentators added that the Internet method of obtaining data for similar investigations is likely to identify only 25% of all real cases occurring in a certain community [6].
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Angelini, P. (2012). The Paradox of Sudden Cardiac Death in the Young: The Main Mission of a Sports Cardiologist. In: Fioranelli, M., Frajese, G. (eds) Sports Cardiology. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2775-6_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2775-6_22
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