This review formally introduces 'sports electrophysiology' as a specialized discipline within sports cardiology, offering practical guidance on arrhythmia management in athletes.
Sports cardiology is a cardiovascular subspecialty that cares for competitive athletes and highly active individuals with cardiovascular risk factors and/or disease. Exercise can lead to physiological, structural, and electrical cardiac remodeling while also contributing to maladaptive changes, including arrhythmias. These nuances have contributed to the emergence of sports electrophysiology as a specialized extension within sports cardiology, dedicated to understanding arrhythmias, including best practices in arrhythmia management in this patient group. Although the diagnosis and treatment of arrhythmias in athletes often parallel standard electrophysiological practices, there are differences and factors to be taken into account. Examples include exercise type and intensity; potential performance effects and side effects of antiarrhythmic therapies; timing and indications for catheter ablation; device selection and programming for cardiac implantable electronic devices when applicable; interpretation of cardiovascular testing; and return-to-play guidance. In this state-of-the-art review, athletic electrical remodeling, clinical considerations for arrhythmia management in athletes, device-related matters, and future directions for the evolving field of sports electrophysiology are discussed. This document builds on recent clinical references by providing practical clinical guidance for electrophysiologists and cardiovascular clinicians who care for athletic patients with arrhythmias and formally introduces the concept of "sports electrophysiology" within sports cardiology as a novel discipline.
“Multifaceted collaboration between the sports cardiology and [EP] communities is essential to advance research priorities, standardize clinical care pathways and develop evidence-based consensus recommendations. …the development of multidisciplinary athlete-centered arrhythmia clinics, the incorp...”
This state-of-the-art review in JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology defines the emerging field of sports electrophysiology and provides practical guidance for managing arrhythmias in athletes, a growing area of clinical focus.
Chung et al. (Sat,) studied this question.