Sports Cardiovascular Risk Screening

Why Would An Athlete Seek Cardiovascular Health Services?

An athlete may seek a cardiovascular specialist for a wide variety of reasons. Athletes put their bodies, including their heart through tough and rigorous training, so it is essential to ensure that the whole body is at optimum health and fully functional.  Some specific reasons to visit include:

• Advice on controlling cardiovascular risk
• Evaluation of impaired or deteriorating performance
• Discussion about family history
• Evaluation of symptoms like chest pain, shortness of breath or palpitations which occur during training
• Clearance to return to training after a cardiac diagnoses or event.

What Cardiovascular Conditions Are Common in Athletes?

Athletes have their own cardiovascular needs. The heart is a muscle that is exercised along with the body. Athletes spend hours training everyday, so it makes sense that their hearts would be developed as well as their more visible muscles. For example, athletic heart syndrome, which is also known as athlete’s heart or athletic bradycardia, is a condition where the heart is enlarged and the resting heart rate is lower than normal. Also, while the difference is slight, some athletes have thicker walls in their hearts, separating the ventricles. These, and similar conditions, do not typically present physical symptoms, and are usually only diagnosed following a cardiac screening. Most of the time these conditions are not dangerous, but should be monitored to ensure the health of the athlete.

How is Athlete’s Heart Diagnosed?

Since there are no signs or physical symptoms of athlete’s heart, the condition is usually found during a routine screening. The doctor will perform a clinical evaluation, usually ordering an ECG and sometimes stress testing. The ECG can reveal sinus bradycardia, atrial or ventricular ectopy, atrial fibrillation, or atrioventricular (AV) blocks of first or second degree status. If there are any irregularities, Dr. Speck will need to order other tests to ensure that the test results are not due to another condition.

What is POTENTR_x?

Dr. Speck offers an in-office fitness lab where athletes can monitor their health and fitness. She and her colleagues provide a multidisciplinary approach with medicine, exercise, nutrition and lifestyle coaching combine into a bespoke program to help patients reach and maintain optimal health, fitness and performance throughout their lives. This service can help athletes to make small but signifcant changes to their diet and training regime to achieve new personal bests and records in performance.