Teen Cardiac Arrest
A young adult, or as more commonly described, a robust teen who exhibits no untoward health symptoms, engaged in vigorous sport activities suddenly dies. No warning of impending disaster. Everything appears normal.
That vigorous activity usually takes place in a public sport arena, where youth players are engrossed in exhibiting their long-practised skills in competitive sports. Like hockey, like football, anything that gets the adrenalin going, and they're playing to their physical capacity.
And then, suddenly, unexpectedly, there is a collapse. And it is a collapse of cataclysmic proportions. Emergency aid is swift to come to the scene, and the sturdy sport figure who has suddenly become a patient, is stabilized. Sent to hospital, treated there, with all the modern techniques of life-saving procedures available to health practitioners, but succumbs to the body's failure to respond to resuscitation attempts.
Parents are bereaved, and they grieve the utterly inexplicable loss of a cherished child. This loss will haunt them to the end of their days. Their siblings will be devastated, their lives forever changed by this event that deprived them of a beloved brother. Their friends will remember, decades later, one of their own who suddenly disappeared from their lives and cast a deep, dark net of gloom over their own anticipation of the future.
How could such a thing happen to an obviously healthy and active young person? According to cardiologists and other allied medical specialists some of these young people may have exhibited symptoms of abnormality but they might have been so slight, and so inconsistent that they were simply shrugged off as meaningless.
And then, there might never have been any symptoms. As well, even when or if full testing was conducted on suspicion of something awry, there might well have been nothing detected that would lead to the conclusion that there was indeed something wrong.
There are inherited abnormalities that may or may not show up as symptomatic and giving warning of future problems. Sudden cardiac arrest in young athletes is unusual and relatively rare, but does occur often enough that people recall their occurrence when reading of yet another sad occurrence shocking the community.
American researchers estimate between 50 and 100 junior high, high school and college athletes in the U.S. die suddenly every year, over half from a hidden cardiovascular problem. That more or less puts things in perspective, doesn't it?
Dr. Michael Gollob, a cardiac arrhythmia specialist at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute has seen over 60 cases of unexplained, sudden cardiac death in young people believed to have been healthy, since 2006. Of that number, a "significant proportion" involved teens.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy where the heart muscle has thickened and enlarged is one common cause. Rarer conditions include Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy, and a condition known as Long QT Syndrome, all genetically inherited cardiac conditions. All of which may be asymptomatic, the only evidence to be seen is after cardiac arrest.
A study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, led by Tel Aviv University's Dr. Arie Steinvil published in 2011, investigated whether electrocardiograms taken routinely of all young athletic teens might be effective in arresting sudden death and cardiac arrest. In Israel the ECG is mandatory. Research divulged that the mandatory ECG had no effect on the incidence of sudden deaths among Israeli youths.
"I don't think widespread screening of young athletes should occur because that will lead to many incorrect diagnoses being made. These diagnoses (of an underlying heart condition) can often be challenging to make with certainty. The effect of withholding someone from competitive sports without certainty of a condition may lead to new health issues, such as an impact of psychological or physical well-being", explained Dr. Gollob.
If you ask a parent what would represent the more catastrophic liability, the possible loss of a young family member, or the misery that a young person would feel, being informed he would be better off not engaging in such vigorous sport activities, would there be much of a pause before choosing a live teen over a disappointed one?
The sensible thing to do, would be for the immediate family to undergo cardiac evaluation if there is a family history of sudden, unexplained death of a young family member, according to those dispensing professional advice. And if there is no family history to offer a modicum of warning?
"These things are almost impossible to prevent."
That vigorous activity usually takes place in a public sport arena, where youth players are engrossed in exhibiting their long-practised skills in competitive sports. Like hockey, like football, anything that gets the adrenalin going, and they're playing to their physical capacity.
And then, suddenly, unexpectedly, there is a collapse. And it is a collapse of cataclysmic proportions. Emergency aid is swift to come to the scene, and the sturdy sport figure who has suddenly become a patient, is stabilized. Sent to hospital, treated there, with all the modern techniques of life-saving procedures available to health practitioners, but succumbs to the body's failure to respond to resuscitation attempts.
Parents are bereaved, and they grieve the utterly inexplicable loss of a cherished child. This loss will haunt them to the end of their days. Their siblings will be devastated, their lives forever changed by this event that deprived them of a beloved brother. Their friends will remember, decades later, one of their own who suddenly disappeared from their lives and cast a deep, dark net of gloom over their own anticipation of the future.
How could such a thing happen to an obviously healthy and active young person? According to cardiologists and other allied medical specialists some of these young people may have exhibited symptoms of abnormality but they might have been so slight, and so inconsistent that they were simply shrugged off as meaningless.
And then, there might never have been any symptoms. As well, even when or if full testing was conducted on suspicion of something awry, there might well have been nothing detected that would lead to the conclusion that there was indeed something wrong.
There are inherited abnormalities that may or may not show up as symptomatic and giving warning of future problems. Sudden cardiac arrest in young athletes is unusual and relatively rare, but does occur often enough that people recall their occurrence when reading of yet another sad occurrence shocking the community.
American researchers estimate between 50 and 100 junior high, high school and college athletes in the U.S. die suddenly every year, over half from a hidden cardiovascular problem. That more or less puts things in perspective, doesn't it?
Dr. Michael Gollob, a cardiac arrhythmia specialist at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute has seen over 60 cases of unexplained, sudden cardiac death in young people believed to have been healthy, since 2006. Of that number, a "significant proportion" involved teens.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy where the heart muscle has thickened and enlarged is one common cause. Rarer conditions include Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy, and a condition known as Long QT Syndrome, all genetically inherited cardiac conditions. All of which may be asymptomatic, the only evidence to be seen is after cardiac arrest.
A study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, led by Tel Aviv University's Dr. Arie Steinvil published in 2011, investigated whether electrocardiograms taken routinely of all young athletic teens might be effective in arresting sudden death and cardiac arrest. In Israel the ECG is mandatory. Research divulged that the mandatory ECG had no effect on the incidence of sudden deaths among Israeli youths.
"I don't think widespread screening of young athletes should occur because that will lead to many incorrect diagnoses being made. These diagnoses (of an underlying heart condition) can often be challenging to make with certainty. The effect of withholding someone from competitive sports without certainty of a condition may lead to new health issues, such as an impact of psychological or physical well-being", explained Dr. Gollob.
If you ask a parent what would represent the more catastrophic liability, the possible loss of a young family member, or the misery that a young person would feel, being informed he would be better off not engaging in such vigorous sport activities, would there be much of a pause before choosing a live teen over a disappointed one?
The sensible thing to do, would be for the immediate family to undergo cardiac evaluation if there is a family history of sudden, unexplained death of a young family member, according to those dispensing professional advice. And if there is no family history to offer a modicum of warning?
"These things are almost impossible to prevent."
Labels: Family, Health, Social-Cultural Deviations, Sports
posted by Pieface @ 6:36 PM
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