Hypertension is rare in the young, but its prevalence increases with age. Exercise contributes to the prevention of hypertension in normotensive subjects and to the control of blood pressure in hypertensive patients. The overall cardiovascular risk of the hypertensive patient does depend not only on blood pressure but also on the presence of other risk factors, target organ damage, and associat...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the screening practices and preparticipation evaluation (PPE) forms used to identify college athletes at risk for the female athlete triad (triad). DESIGN Phone and/or e-mail survey. SETTING National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I universities. PARTICIPANTS All 347 NCAA Division I universities were invited to participate in a survey, with 257 parti...

While the preparticipation physical evaluation (PPE) is widely accepted, its usage and content are not standardized. Implementation is affected by cost, access, level of participation, participant age/sex, and local/regional/national mandate. PPE screening costs are generally borne by the athlete, family, or club. Screening involves generally agreed-upon questions based on expert opinion and te...

Healthy-appearing competitive athletes may harbor unsuspected cardiovascular disease with the potential to cause sudden death. This fact raises issues of physician responsibility in preparticipation screening and eligibility/disqualification decisions. A number of medical-legal cases now represent a framework for screening and eligibility decision making in high school and college athletes. Phy...

Deaths of young athletes from cardiac disease are uncommon but receive considerable media attention and intermittently galvanize debates about cardiac screening prior to participation in sports. Both the American Heart Association (AHA) and European Society of Cardiology (ESC) endorse preparticipation screening in athletes; however, there is disagreement about the best approach. The AHA recomme...

OBJECTIVE To determine the proportion of US high schools using sports preparticipation evaluation (PPE) forms containing the 3 elements of the medical history currently recommended for screening young athletes for heart disease, including questions about exercise-related symptoms, previous diagnosis of heart murmur or high blood pressure, and family history of early myocardial infarction or sud...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the clinical usefulness of complete preparticipation cardiovascular screening in a large cohort of sports participants. DESIGN Cross sectional study of data over a five year period. SETTING Institute of Sports Medicine in Florence, Italy. PARTICIPANTS 30,065 (23,570 men) people seeking to obtain clinical eligibility for competitive sports. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Res...

In the United States, there are 212.6 million physically active persons older than six years (eFigure A), including 36 million youths and 7.8 million high school sports participants at approximately 36,000 secondary schools.1-4 Although physical activity clearly improves health outcomes, it also carries inherent risks, including injury, illness, and, rarely, death. Although a small percentage o...