title: [Sudden death and physical activity and sports].
abstract: A growing number of people are involved in recreational physical activity. We examined the clinical and cardiac pathological patterns in 29 persons who died suddenly during a sport activity and were autopsied at the Institute of Forensic Medicine of Paris, 1990-1999. Twenty-seven males ranging in age from 13 to 57 years, mean 30.5, and two females, 8 and 60 years old, died suddenly during a sport activity. The sports included running, 11 cases; cycling, 4; soccer, 3; swimming, 2; basket-ball, 2; rugby, 1, gymnastic exercises, 2; tennis, 1; gockart, 1; skiing, 1; hand-ball, 1 case. The causes of deaths were as follows; coronary artery disease, 9 cases; congenital anatomic anomaly of a coronary artery, 1; hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, 5; right ventricular dysplasia, 3; myocarditis, 2; endomyocardial fibrosis, 1; bridging of the left anterior descending coronary artery, 2; stroke, 2; rupture of aortic aneurysm, 4. Despite severity of lesions, only 4 victims had a known cardiovascular disease. Efforts should be continued to improve sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic tools and screening strategies. Therefore, medico-legal autopsies should be systematically performed for a better knowledge of sport-related mortality.
authors.affiliation: Département de médecine légale faculté de médecine Cochin-Port-Royal (université Paris-V) 24, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Jacques 75014 Paris. pfornes@imaginet.fr
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fornes
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lecomte
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001344:Autopsy; D002423:Cause of Death; D003644:Death Certificates; D003645:Death, Sudden / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D008875:Middle Aged; D010297:Paris / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013177:Sports
vernacular_title: Mort subite et activité physique et sportive.