Pre Participation Examination: Tool for Cardiovascular Screening of Competitive Athletes

The heart of an athlete has instilled inquisitiveness in many researchers, clinicians since a century. It is now well established that tedious physical training results in significant changes in cardiac structure and function. The recent increases in the number of people participating in recreational exercises and sports competitions have led to growing number of people exhibiting such changes. So the pre-participation screening becomes an important tool for non invasive examination and for diagnostic purposes. The main purpose of this consensus document is to reinforce the principle of the need for pre-participation medical clearance of all competitive athletes involved in organized sports programs, on the basis of (i) systematic screening by 12-lead ECG (in addition to history and physical examination) to identify hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - the leading cause of sportsrelated sudden death - and to prevent athletic field fatalities; (ii) transthoracic echocardiography with the potential ability of screening ability in detecting other lethal cardiovascular diseases.