Athlete heart screening may be flawed
Monday July 29th, 2013
Efforts to screen young athletes for heart conditions may fall foul of racial differences between black and white athletes, British researchers have warned.
Many
black athletes may be getting the wrong advice to quit their sporting
career because of the unrecognised differences, according to a study at
St George's, University of London.
The problem lies with measurements of the right chamber of the heart, they say.
"Enlargement" of this chamber has been thought to indicate problems - but it is fact normal and healthy in black athletes, it has been claimed.
The findings come from a study of some 675 high performing athletes, of whom 300 were black.
Researcher Professor Sanjay Sharma said: “The response of the heart to exercise is influenced by several factors including the age, sex, ethnicity of the athlete and the sporting discipline. Black athletes can pose a challenge since some of the electrical and structural responses to physical training which are normally seen in black athletes may overlap with cardiac disease in other races.
“This research has highlighted that the current guidelines about normal and abnormal heart size do not reflect the contrasting structural differences seen in the right heart chamber between black and white athletes.
"This must be recognised in order to avoid wrongly cutting short the careers and livelihoods of black athletes who comprise a growing proportion of elite sports participants around the world.”
Physiological Right Ventricular Adaptation in Elite Athletes of African and Afro-Caribbean Origin. Circulation. 2013; 127: 1783-1792. [abstract]
Tags: Fitness | Heart Health | UK News
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