Young elite athletes will benefit from a new screening tool with the potential to change clinical practice by ruling out serious heart disease that is often misdiagnosed. The research is thanks to a jointly led study between the Universities of Exeter and Bristol, working with emerging athletes from around the world.
Cardiomyopathy, a form of heart disease in the heart muscle, is a genetic condition in which the walls of the heart chambers no longer develop as they normally would, and can take many forms. This can lead to collapses on the field or affect the heart’s ability to pump blood around the body.
For one in twenty healthy adolescent athletes, training alone leads to changes in the appearance of the heart during ultrasound. This means that diagnosing a cardiomyopathy can often be difficult, and being told that a disease is even suspected can lead to a huge amount of psychological distress, often preventing them from participating in training and matches until a clear decision has been made.
In this major international study, more than 400 youth athletes from the Manchester United Youth Academy, Football Club Barcelona and the Qatar Aspire Academy were screened using new and non-invasive ultrasound techniques. These techniques, already used in the clinical diagnosis of patients, are an important step forward in the development of a new route for screening for cardiomyopathy in athletes. The team now hopes the new techniques will reduce the number of false diagnoses, potentially saving the NHS time and resources in providing follow-up tests to rule out the condition and prevent health problems.
Professor Craig Williams, Director of the Children’s Health & Exercise Research Center at the University of Exeter said: “Our results demonstrate the power of new ultrasound techniques in screening athletes suspected of having cardiomyopathy but who are otherwise completely healthy. .. The difference this makes is the more accurate diagnosis of cardiomyopathy, especially in young athletes, better protecting the athletes of tomorrow.”
Dan Dorobantu, PhD student in cardiology at the University of Exeter, added: “When screening athletes we often saw changes that could be due to disease, but equally to the way the heart adapts to training. Reaching a clear conclusion may involve more testing, follow-up visits and significant stress for the athletes. Any new technology that can help us better diagnose these cases would lead to improvements in the screening and care we provide to our athletes. “
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