Sudden cardiac death and arrhythmias in athletes

Sudden cardiac death due to ventricular rhythm disturbances are rare but highly public. It’s strange and curious because you don’t expect healthy athletes to suffer serious cardiac issues.

Recently three prominent athletes have survived sudden cardiac death. Christian Erikson, a Danish soccer player, Damar Hamlin, an American football player and Bronny James, son of Lebron James. These high-profile cases have highlighted the issue of sudden cardiac death of athletes.

Dr. Dorian has published extensively on this topic. We had a great conversation. I learned a lot and hope you will too.

JMM

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Here are three pertinent articles he has published—note the first is from NEJM.

Landry CH, Allan KS, Connelly KA, Cunningham K, Morrison LJ, Dorian P; Rescu Investigators. Sudden Cardiac Arrest during Participation in Competitive Sports. N Engl J Med. 2017 Nov 16;377(20):1943-1953. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1615710. PMID: 29141175; PMCID: PMC5726886.

Weissler Snir A, Connelly KA, Goodman JM, Dorian D, Dorian P. Exercise in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: restrict or rethink. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2021 May 1;320(5):H2101-H2111. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00850.2020. Epub 2021 Mar 26. PMID: 33769918.

Weissler-Snir A, Allan K, Cunningham K, Connelly KA, Lee DS, Spears DA, Rakowski H, Dorian P. Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy-Related Sudden Cardiac Death in Young People in Ontario. Circulation. 2019 Nov 19;140(21):1706-1716. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.040271. Epub 2019 Oct 21. PMID: 31630535.

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