The incidence of sports-related sudden cardiac death in adolescents and young adults ranged from 0.1 to 0.6 per 100,000 participants per year.
Systematic Review (n=84)
This systematic review highlights the need for standardized definitions of sports-related sudden cardiac events and the integration of epidemiological risk factors with xAI and cardiac modeling to improve athlete-specific risk stratification.
Abstract Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) is a fatal event occurring within one hour of a witnessed or 24 hours of an unwitnessed Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA), being the leading medical cause of death among adolescent and young adult athletes. We examined the epidemiology of sports-related SCD (SrSCD) and SCA (SrSCA) incidence in adolescents and young adults, explainable Artificial Intelligence (xAI) applied to life-threatening arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiological models. We systematically searched peer-reviewed studies from eight databases between 2013–2025 (PROSPERO: CRD42024565960), using PROBAST for bias assessment. From 9574 studies, we included 84 (incidence: 16, xAI: 30, modelling: 38). SrSCD incidence ranged from 0.1 to 0.6 per 100,000 participants per year. Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping dominated as xAI technique. Cardiac electrophysiological models predominantly focused on cellular and tissue-level electrophysiology. We advocate for standardised SrSCD/SrSCA definitions and integration of epidemiological risk factors with xAI and cardiac modelling frameworks to advance athlete-specific risk stratification.
Müller et al. (Thu,) conducted a systematic review in Sports-related sudden cardiac death and arrest (n=84). Explainable Artificial Intelligence (xAI) and cardiac electrophysiological models was evaluated on Incidence of sports-related sudden cardiac death (SrSCD). The incidence of sports-related sudden cardiac death in adolescents and young adults ranged from 0.1 to 0.6 per 100,000 participants per year.