Recent Student Athlete Deaths Raise Concerns for Health Screening Methods

In the past two weeks, four high school athletes have died, three due to cardiac failure, and one cause uncertain. The rate is not unusual, but rather prompts school officials and doctors to consider heightening the level of medical screening for student athletes.

Most recently was Sarah Landauer, 17, from Gainesville, Florida. Landauer collapsed at track practice on Wednesday, the cause of which is still unknown. On March 7, Javaris Dashwan Brinkley, 16, of Henrico, North Carolina died of heart failure during a basketball game. Brinkley was found to have had a pre-existing heart condition. On March 5, Matthew Hammerdorfer, 17, from Fort Collins, Colorado died during a rugby match. Hammerdorfer's cardiac arrest was found to be caused by a congenital heart defect. This was two days after the first student to draw national attention, Wes Leonard, 16, of Fenville, Michigan, suffered cardiac arrest after making a surprising lay-up at a school basketball game. He reportedly had an enlarged heart.

While some organizations, like the International Olympic Committee, require athletes to receive electrocardiograms as part of their physical training, many are reluctant to enforce the policy on schools due to the cost and the frequency of false positives that could keep healthy kids from playing sports.

Studies by the American College of Cardiology, Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, and Harvard University found that implementing ECGs does not effectively isolate medical anomalies from a large sample of healthy student athletes.

What has been adopted are new questions required of athletes, including family history of heart trouble, and personal cardiac history. Detecting this information early may suspend student participation on the field, but it could prevent the 50 to 100 cases of sudden death among young people each year.

Sources:

"How Can Teen Athlete Deaths be Prevented?"

By Elizabeth Landau, CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/11/teen.heart.deaths/index.html?iref=allsearch

"Heart screening test studied for student athletes"

http://www.boston.com/news/health/blog/2010/03/by_kay_lazar_gl.html

"Colorado Teen Collapses During Rigby Match."

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/07/colorado-teen-collapses-during-rugby-match-dies/

"Community Mourns Fallen Teen Basketball Hero in Michigan."

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/07/michigan.basketball.death/index.html

"Doctors Weigh in on Student Athlete Deaths."

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2011/03/10/doctors-weigh-in-on-student-athlete-deaths/