Athlete‘s ECG: what is it normal or abnormal

Abstract

Traditionally, therapeutic and training interventions are characterized by following a model that is independent of a person and independent of time. In consequence the therapists and coaches are trying to avoid deviations from this movements and are mostly overloading the patients and athletes with ample corrective instructions. In result, mainly this leads to frustration on both sides. In order to circumvent this process an errorless learning approach (Maxwell et al. 2001) as a form of implicit. Cardiovascular related sudden death is the leading cause of mortality in athletes during sport and exercise [1]. These deaths occur in both sexes an in a wide range of individual and team sports. Among people younger than 35 years old, congenital heart diseases predominate: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, arrhytmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, congenital coronary anomalies, aortic valve stenosis, Marfan syndrome and ion channelopathies [2]. To recognize early possible risks, history and clinical examination is agreed to be the basis of pre-participation medical evaluation. However, there is a long-standing controversy about weather ECG at rest should also be mandatory for all the athletes [3]. There are certain limitations in the use of ECG in population screening, including but not limited to false-positive and false-negative test results, technical interpretation issues, “gray zone” ambiguous diagnoses and costs involved in arranging second-tier diagnostic testing [2]. Over the last decade, ECG interpretation standards have undergone several modifications to improve the accuracy of detecting potentially life threatening cardiac conditions in young athletes while also limiting false-positive results [1]. Regular and long-term participation in exercise (minimum of 4 hours per week) is associated with unique electrical manifestations that reflect enlarged cardiac chamber size and increased vagal tone. Thes. [...]