Preparticipation Screening of Athletes
- Gordon O. Matheson, MD, PhD
- From the Division of Sports Medicine, Department of Functional Restoration, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- athletics
- cardiovascular diseases
- medical history taking
- physical examination
- sports
- students
In this issue of JAMA, the article by Glover and Maron1 addresses the issue of improving the sensitivity of the preparticipation examination (PPE) to detect silent, clinically important cardiovascular abnormalities that place the athlete at risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD). Fortunately, SCD is rare in high school athletes. But the appeal of being able to identify risk factors and thereby prevent SCD, coupled with the legal obligation for sports organizations and institutions to provide a safe environment for athletes points to the need to consider, wherever possible, ways to improve the sensitivity of the PPE. Glover and Maron have identified the following problems with the high school PPE process: (1) 16% of states have no approved history and physical examination forms; (2) of the 84% of states that do, questions deemed essential for detecting abnormalities were missing from half of the history forms and more than 60% …
