1 research outputs found
Recommendations for competitive sports participation in athletes with cardiovascular disease: a consensus document from the Study Group of Sports Cardiology of the Working Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases of the European Society of Cardiology
Recommendations for competitive sports
participation in athletes with cardiovascular disease
A Consensus document from the Study Group of Sports
Cardiology of the Working Group of Cardiac Rehabilitation and
Exercise Physiology and the Working Group of Myocardial and
Pericardial diseases of the European Society of Cardiology
The rationale for offering an expert consensus document
concerning the participation in competitive sports by
individuals with cardiovascular (CV) disease is based on
the widely accepted clinical perception, substantiated
by scientific evidence, that athletes with underlying
(even clinically silent) CV disease have an increased risk
for sudden cardiac death (SCD) or clinical deterioration
in comparison with normal individuals, by virtue of
their regular exercise training and sports participation.
Therefore, the aim of the present recommendations is
to provide careful guidelines to physicians and consultant
cardiologists regarding the evaluation of athletes with
CV abnormalities and to suggest sports activities that
can be safely performed.
Target of the recommendations
are competitive athletes
Nature of the recommendations
The present recommendations represent the consensus
document of an international panel of experts appointed
by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), including
clinical CV specialists with experience in exercise physiology,
sports medicine, and clinical cardiology.
The present recommendations represent,
therefore, a prudent, contemporary, and practical
document for advising competitive sports activity in
patients with CV disease.
This panel advises that
implementation of the present recommendations will
occur in the different European countries with
keeping in mind the different legal and cultural
backgrounds, possibly by legislative action, and with
the support of the national scientific and sport
organizations