Athletes death tallys up 2021 Epidemic of heart issues in athletes...

Results: A total of 19,740 autopsies were completed in the study period: 12,395 in subjects age 18-65 years (adults) and 385 in subjects age 7-17 years (children). There were 201 sports-related adult deaths at an incidence rate of 0.76-1.49 per 100,000 participant-years. Of the deaths, 74% were witnessed. Of the adult cases, 68% (n = 136) were due to cardiac causes, with coronary artery disease the most frequent cause (n = 90 [45%]). Structural abnormalities were common in adult cardiac deaths; 51 (38%) had cardiac weight ≥500 g, and 75 (55%) had left ventricular wall thickness >15 mm. Of the 15 child deaths, 5 (33%) were arrhythmogenic or presumed arrhythmic, and 5 (33%) were inherited cardiomyopathies (2 hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, 3 arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy).

Conclusion: Sudden cardiac death during sport is rare. Deaths are mostly due to coronary artery disease in adults and cardiomyopathy or arrhythmia in children. Because the majority of sports deaths are witnessed, they present an opportunity to enhance outcomes by cardiopulmonary resuscitation training and increased availability of automated external defibrillators at sports venues.

Results: Over the course of 18.5 million person-years of observation, 74 sudden cardiac arrests occurred during participation in a sport; of these, 16 occurred during competitive sports and 58 occurred during noncompetitive sports. The incidence of sudden cardiac arrest during competitive sports was 0.76 cases per 100,000 athlete-years, with 43.8% of the athletes surviving until they were discharged from the hospital. Among the competitive athletes, two deaths were attributed to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and none to arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. Three cases of sudden cardiac arrest that occurred during participation in competitive sports were determined to have been potentially identifiable if the athletes had undergone preparticipation screening.
Conclusions: In our study involving persons who had out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, the incidence of sudden cardiac arrest during participation in competitive sports was 0.76 cases per 100,000 athlete-years. The occurrence of sudden cardiac arrest due to structural heart disease was uncommon during participation in competitive sports. (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and others.).