Jun 27, 2016Competing with CPVT
With the proper information and treatment, a rare heart condition may not be cause for athletes to stay on the sidelines. A recent study’s results showed no difference in the number of cardiac events for athletes with catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) compared to non-athletes with the disease.
According to an article from Medical News Today, CPVT causes irregular heartbeats that may lead to sudden cardiac death, fainting, and seizure. CPVT is often found in young athletes after they have experienced a cardiac event.
The study consisted of retrospectively analyzed records of 63 patients who had been seen for CPVT at the Mayo Clinic’s Genetic Heart Rhythm Clinic after 1995. The patients were an average of 16 years old, with nearly half of the patients saying they were athletes at some point prior to being diagnosed. There were no differences in the events or event rates for the athletes compared to the non-athletes.
“While breakthrough events can and do occur even among CPVT patients receiving the best care at dedicated CPVT centers of excellence, there are also the known risks of a sedentary lifestyle as well as a decreased quality of life that may come with quitting physical activity and/or athletes,” Michael J. Ackerman, MD, PhD, Director of the Genetic Heart Rhythm Clinic and Mayo Clinic’s Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and the study’s senior author told Medical News Today.
