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The Risk of Sudden Death Associated with Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Ventricular Pre-excitation in Athletes
- Source :
- Romanian Journal of Cardiology. 32:85-92
- Publication Year :
- 2022
- Publisher :
- Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2022.
-
Abstract
- Sudden death (SD) in athletes is a potential avoidable dramatic scenario. When done regularly, cardiological evaluation increases the chances of diagnosing ventricular pre-excitation. Consequently, the following question arises: what is the real incidence of SD risk in athletes with Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome/pattern? This study included 84 consecutive patients diagnosed with WPW and was designed as a retrospective analysis of data acquired between 2011 and 2021 to answer this question. The patients were evaluated using a 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG), echocardiography, stress test, and electrophysiological study (EPS). The SD risk linked to WPW was defined as ≥ 1 of the following: the anterograde effective refractory period (AERP) of the accessory pathway (AP) ≤ 250 ms, atrial fibrillation (AF) with the shortest RR pre-excited interval ≤ 250 ms, syncope during AF or atrioventricular reentry tachycardia. The athletes with WPW pattern (n=25) or syndrome (n=59) at risk of SD were identified and treated with radiofrequency ablation (RFA). The mean age was 19.83 (10–29) years; 66.6% were men. Seventeen athletes (n=17; 20.23%) were found with SD risk: 15 (n=15; 17.85%) in the WPW syndrome group and 2 (n=2; 2.38%) in the WPW pattern group. During the EPS, n=4 developed syncope: 1 during antidromic tachycardia and 3 during pre-excited AF. RFA was curative in 96.42% of cases. The EPS is mandatory to identify athletes with short AERP APs linked to an increased risk of SD. RFA is the intervention that settles the patients into a risk-free area, allowing resumption of sports shortly afterward.
- Subjects :
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 27346382
- Volume :
- 32
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Romanian Journal of Cardiology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........c2ffa6b06911831d8f618fd81157a2ac