Sudden Death and Ventricular Arrhythmias in Athletes: Screening, De-Training and the Role of Catheter Ablation

Abstract

Athletes enjoy excellent health outcomes including greater longevity relative to non-athletic counterparts. Paradoxically, however, endurance athletic conditioning is associated with an increase in some arrhythmias. This review discusses the potential mechanisms for this paradox and strategies enabling early identification of potentially serious pathologies. Screening remains contentious due to the challenges of identifying relatively rare entities amongst a healthy cohort. The imperfect diagnostic accuracy of all current tests means that screening strategies have potential for harm through incorrect diagnoses as well as the potential for identification of important sub-clinical pathologies...