title: Pre-participation and follow-up screening of athletes for endurance sport.
abstract: Physical activity increases life expectancy and sport is a priori not harmful. Exhausted sporting activity (e.g. endurance running, triathlon, cycling or competitive sport) can lead under individual conditions to negative cardiac remodelling (pathological enlargement/function of cardiac cavities/structures) or in worst case to cardiac arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death (SCD). This individually disposition can be genetically determined or behaviourally/environmentally acquired. Overall competitive young male athletes suffer five-fold higher than non-competitive athletes from sudden death and athletes aged over 30 bear a potential for arrhythmias, atrial fibrillation or a 20-fold higher possibility for SCD as female athletes. Patients with diabetes, coronary disease, obesity or hypertension require different special managements. Screening of cardiorespiratory health for sport activities has a lot of faces. Basically there is a need for indicated examinations or possible preventive measures inside or outside of pre-competition screening. The costs of screening compared to expenditure of whole effort for sporting activities are acceptable or even negligible, but of course dependent on national/regional settings. The various causes and possibilities of screening will be discussed in this article as basic suggestion for an open discussion beyond national borders and settings.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health, School of Medicine, University Witten/Herdecke, Germany.
authors.forename: Roman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Leischik
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health, School of Medicine, University Witten/Herdecke, Germany.
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dworrak
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health, School of Medicine, University Witten/Herdecke, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Foshag
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health, School of Medicine, University Witten/Herdecke, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Strauss
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health, School of Medicine, University Witten/Herdecke, Germany.
authors.forename: Norman
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Spelsberg
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health, School of Medicine, University Witten/Herdecke, Germany.
authors.forename: Henning
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Littwitz
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health, School of Medicine, University Witten/Herdecke, Germany.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Horlitz
keywords: Athletes; Endurance sport; Physical activity; Pre-participation screening