Are certain individuals and families more vulnerable to sudden death during sports?
There are patients with congenital heart diseases and cardiomyopathies that are particularly prone to development of arrhythmias and sudden death during exertion. These individuals can potentially be identified prior to sports participation, and should be given restriction guidelines or advised of specific exercise and sporting limitations. Inherited hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients are especially vulnerable to exercise-associated sudden death, and this disease is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death under age 35 in the United States. There are multiple causes of QT prolongation on an ECG, including congenital and acquired long QT syndromes (see sidebar), but they can both result in sudden cardiac death during exercise. Typically, the congenital forms present during childhood, and the acquired forms may present during either childhood or adulthood, depending mainly on the inciting factors. Other electrical myopathies besides long QT syndrome, such as Brugada syndrome and arrhy
