Pre-participation screening, particularly whether an ECG should be included as part of a pre-participation exam for young athletes, is one of the most widely debated topics in sports cardiology.
Performing an ECG as part of pre-participation screening improves the chances of identifying an underlying cardiac condition and gives athletes and their families more information about their health, but there is no hard evidence that doing so prevents sudden cardiac death, and a false positive could lead to unnecessary downstream tests, procedures and disqualification. Thus, there is no strong consensus in the sports cardiology field on the matter.
Healio spoke with several sports cardiologists, including Dr. Eli Friedman, for their thoughts on whether a screening ECG should be part of a pre-participation exam for young athletes.
