Most Athletes at Risk with Cardiac Abnormalities; Regular Heart Screening A Must, Experts Say

A new study says that most athletes are prone to deadly cardiovascular diseases and conditions. An expert says that a thorough medical evaluation must be done by those who wish to take part in competitive sports.

"Even Olympic athletes," said Dr. Paulo Emilio Adam from the Italian Olympic Committee in Rome, "regardless of their superior physical performance and astonishing achievements, showed an unexpected large prevalence of cardiovascular abnormalities, including life-threatening conditions."

"It is really surprising that Olympic athletes, who are considered some of the healthiest individuals, should have such significant abnormalities...and that despite these abnormalities they had managed to reach such high competitive levels," said Dr. Adam, study author via Medical Xpress.

The study was conducted in more than 2,000 athletes who are competing for the summer and winter Olympic Games. The results show that in their screening tests, there was a high level of cardiovascular conditions that may threaten some of the athletes' health. The data was taken from 2002 to 2014 screenings that includes a physical examination, echocardiography, 12-lead and exercise ECG and to further confirm some diagnoses, a 24-hour ECG monitoring was administered.

However, according to Medical Daily, cardiovascular assessments for athletes should be different from the standard testing. This is because due to the athletes' training for competitions, their cardiovascular is more built up in intensity and subject to stress as a result from extensive exercising.

"We cannot take it for granted that elite athletes are healthy. This study demonstrates that a more accurate assessment is necessary for elite professional athletes than for members of the general population, in view of the intensity and stress on their cardiovascular system through so many hours of training and competition. We suggest that our model of screening is applied to all elite athletes, regardless of the sport they practise," said Dr. Adami.

Dr. Michael Knapton from the British Heart Foundation says that the screening is not too reliable enough for all athletes.

"We would have to screen an awful lot of people to save one life and in most of those people it might do more harm than good.  We could end up stopping ambitious young athletes from following their careers and worry them for no reason.

"We might also falsely reassure people that they are fine when they are not," Dr. Knapton said via BBC.

Further research needs to be conducted in order for these types of evaluations to be proven.