Will it really help young athletes?

• Position: ECG Screening - Prevention of cardiac arrest incidents - Brief article

The chance of athletes ages eight to 18 dying of a sudden cardiac arrest is similar to the odds of their dying from a lightning strike. People in that age group are far more likely to perish from cancer or automobile accidents.

"When the athlete is part of a middle or high school community, and the death occurs in the public arena of a sports competition, it captures a lot of attention and concern about what to do to prevent such events," acknowledges Benjamin Levine, a cardiologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, and director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine, a collaboration between UTSW and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

Some clinicians have recommended that every young athlete be screened with an electrocardiogram (ECG), which measures electrical activity of the heart to identify some of...