The CRY research fellows based at the department of cardiovascular sciences, St George’s University London have been heavily involved in these screening programs under the supervision of Professor Sanjay Sharma. The funding for this project was provided by Philips®.

Between October 2007 and March 2012, 1100 elite British athletes underwent cardiac screening. A vast majority of these athletes participated in sports that feature in Olympic and Paralympic events.

The screening program incorporated a health questionnaire, 12-lead electrocardiogram and transthoracic echocardiogram. Those with an abnormality were referred for further diagnostic evaluation or follow-up; the CRY Specialist Centre for Sports Cardiology and Inherited Cardiac Diseases at St George’s Hospital served as one of the referral centres.

The athletes diagnosed with ECG abnormality included 1 with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (WPW) and 2 with prolonged QT interval. One athlete (participating in a sport not featuring in Olympics) was identified with dilated aortic root with bicuspid aortic valve and aortic regurgitation; he required cardiac surgery following which he has returned to competitive sports.

Echocardiogram identified 12 more athletes with valve abnormalities who will require follow-up; these included 6 with bicuspid aortic valve, 5 with mitral valve prolapse, and 2 with pulmonary stenosis. None of the athletes were diagnosed with a cardiomyopathy, however some require long-term regular follow-up.

The study shows that cardiovascular abnormalities in highly trained British athletes are rare; however cardiovascular screening can lead to early identification of important conditions which may potentially predispose an athlete to sudden cardiac death. Most athletes with minor cardiac abnormalities can be allowed to compete with close monitoring.

Dr Saqib Ghani MBBS, MRCP

CRY Research Fellow

Cardiovascular Sciences, St George’s University London

The final programme for the Heart Failure Management meeting (May 16th 2012) is now available.

This meeting will focus on practical and strategic issues regarding heart failure management and we have designed a programme that will give the attendees ample time to interact with the members of the faculty.

Click here to download the final programme (PDF version).

Register now as places are limited to 150!

Click here to register

Professor Sanjay Sharma, from St George’s University of London appears on Sports Tonight Live to provide expert analysis of this event.

Current European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines that are used by sports organisations are based on data obtained from white athletes.

For this study, Dr. Sheikh and colleagues analysed ECGs from 923 black athletes, 1,711 white athletes and 209 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and compared them to current and previous guidelines. The results showed 43% of the participating black athletes would have been highlighted for further investigation, despite being healthy. However, this is still a reduction from 60% false positive results using the 2005 ESC guidelines.

“It shows that we do need to take ethnicity into account during pre-participation screening if we want to avoid over-investigation of black athletes,” says Dr Sheikh. “The implications for practice are potentially huge, given that in both the United States and the United Kingdom an ever increasing proportion of elite athletes are of African/Afro-Caribbean ethnicity.”

Further reading

Ong P, Athanasiadis A, Borgulya G, Mahrholdt H, Kaski JC, Setchtem U. High prevalence of a pathological response to acetylcholine testing in patients with stable angina pectoris and unobstructed coronary arteries. The ACOVA study (Abnormal COronary VAsomotion in patients with stable angina and unobstructed coronary arteries). J Am Coll Cardiol2012 Feb 14; 59(7): 655-62.

Dear colleague

On behalf of the Cardiovascular Sciences Research Centre (CVSRC – St George’s University of London), we would like to invite you to attend the meeting on Wednesday May 16th which will take place at The Royal College of Physicians, London.

The meeting will focus on practical and strategic issues regarding heart failure management and we have designed a programme that will give the attendees ample time to interact with the members of the Faculty. Please browse through the scientific programme to see the important and challenging topics that will be addressed at the meeting.

Click here to register online

Further information regarding online registration, hotel accommodation and general information regarding the meeting, can be obtained from the Meetings and Events section of this website.

We truly look forward to seeing you at the Royal College of Physicians in May.

Yours sincerely

Professor Juan Carlos Kaski

Head, Cardiovascular Sciences Research Centre
St George’s University of London

Please click here for further information.

Eligible applicants will have held a university post for at least two years.

The awards are unsuited to applicants who have been sufficiently long in post for the trajectory of their research contribution to have become established.

If you are interested in applying please contact Dr Briony Fane bfane@sgul.ac.uk

An analysis of more than 100,000 patients, published in Archives of Internal Medicine, concluded the risk of internal bleeding was too high.

The UK-led study said only people with a history of heart problems or stroke should take the tablets. Prof Kausik Ray, from St George’s, University of London, tells the BBC: “If you treat 73 people for about six years you will get one of these non-trivial bleeds. If you treat about 160 people for the same period of time, you’re preventing one heart attack that probably wouldn’t have been fatal anyway.

“It suggests that the net benefit for aspirin is not there, it certainly doesn’t prolong life. If you think about it the net benefit, actually there is net harm.”

Further reading:

Sreenivasa Rao Kondapally Seshasai, MD, MPhil; Shanelle Wijesuriya, MA, MBBChir; Rupa Sivakumaran, MA, MBBChir; Sarah Nethercott, MA, MBBChir; Sebhat Erqou, MD, PhD;Naveed Sattar, MD, PhD; Kausik K. Ray, MD. Effect of aspirin on vascular and nonvascular outcomes: Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Arch Intern Med Published online January 9, 2012. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2011.628.