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Cardiac arrests strike young, old athletes alike

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Young, competitive athletes who suffer from cardiac arrests, in which the heart stops beating without warning, may account for a lot of headlines -- but most such cardiac events are in adult men playing recreational sports, according to a French study. The findings, carried in the journal Circulation, come in the wake of several sudden recent deaths on the playing field ranging from former Japan defender Naoki Matsuda, who collapsed while training, to a U.S. high school basketball player who collapsed just moments after sinking a game-winning basket. In the study, researchers documented 820 cases of sports-related cardiac arrest over five years. However dramatic that may seem, it works out to only four or five deaths for every million people each year, although the true rate may be higher than that. "Sports-related sudden death in the general population is considerably more common than previously suspected," wrote author Eloi Marijon, from the Paris Cardiovascular Research Center, and colleagues. "Most cases are witnessed, yet bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation was only initiated in one-third of cases." About 300,000 U.S. residents suffer cardiac arrest annually, and the vast majority of them die. The data came from a combination of ambulance reports of sudden cardiac arrests in exercisers and media releases on those emergencies. From 2005 to 2010, the researchers tracked all sport-related cardiac arrests in adolescents and adults living in 60 of 96 districts in France. Out of 820 total cardiac arrests, 50 occurred in younger competitive athletes aged 10 to 35. On average, they still suffered cardiac arrests at a higher rate than the population in general -- about 10 in every million, per year. Still, more than 90 percent of all cardiac arrests happened during recreational sports, most often biking or running. The majority were in otherwise healthy men between age 35 and 65. When people in cardiac arrest were given CPR, their odds of surviving more than tripled. In total, 253 people in the study made it to the hospital alive, and 128 ultimately survived. Marijon said this was the take-home message. "We cannot transmit the message that sport practice is dangerous for health," Marijon told Reuters Health in an email, noting the findings underlined the importance of quick CPR. Doctors have debated whether competitive athletes should be screened for underlying small heart defects that might cause a sudden cardiac arrest, but this effort would be hard to plan in recreational athletes and risks false-positive test results, Marijon added. Kim Harmon, a sports medicine doctor at the University of Washington at Seattle, said there's no reason to think the rates of sudden cardiac arrest would be different in the United States. "The types of heart (conditions) that cause this in different populations might be a little different, but the problem is the same," she said. "I think this study really highlights... that early defibrillation and CPR is important." SOURCE: http://bit.ly/prsXn9 (Reporting by Genevra Pittman at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies)