Growing interest across Asia in sudden death in sports
By Patwant Singh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 02 October 2007 1907 hrs

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SINGAPORE : There has been a growing interest across Asia in sudden deaths in sports, and the medical community has said this may spur joint research into this area.

In Singapore, a growing number of people are going for pre-participation medical screening - one of the recommendations by the Sports Safety Committee.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - where a thickening of the heart muscles impedes blood flow - often causes sudden cardiac death in young fit athletes.

Another cause of sudden deaths among people below the age of 30 is abnormally formed coronary arteries.

Dr Michael Lim, President, Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology, said: "We have been looking more at sudden deaths in adults, but certainly this area of sudden deaths in younger people is an area of interest we have.

"So one of the projects that we will be looking into is to come up with a screening process which is easily applicable to any simple family practice."

The College of the Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology will be working with experienced medical institutions in Asia to implement a screening programme for athletes in Asia.

A questionnaire will be made available on the Society's website soon. Such questionnaires and mandatory screening have proven to be helpful in other countries.

Dr Lim said, "In one of the northeastern states in Italy, they actually had a screening programme for all young athletes and they managed to cut down their sudden death rate by 90 percent."

Singapore is planning to introduce mandatory and voluntary pre-participation screening.

So far this year, close to 200 screenings have been carried out at Changi General Hospital for both athletes and non-athletes.

Dr Lim, who is also the Medical Director at the Singapore Heart, Stroke and Cancer Centre, added that in older patients, the cause of sudden deaths is usually the blocking of coronary arteries.

A simple electrocardiogram may not detect that, but a more comprehensive CT scan can do the job.

Dr Lim said that though such tests are costly, they are getting more popular. - CNA/ms