A black athlete with ECG anomalies

4 December 2013

Organised by:

The case

Description

A 28-year-old male footballer of African descent was referred to the Sports cardiology outpatient clinic for further evaluation following concerns over his 12-lead ECG that was performed as part of a screening session.
He had played professional football for 11 years
Exercising 14 hours per week.
Asymptomatic with no significant family history of cardiac disease or sudden death.

References

Ethnic differences in physiological cardiac adaptation to intense physical exercise in highly trained female athletes. Rawlins J, Carre F, Kervio G, Papadakis M, Chandra N, Edwards C, Whyte GP, Sharma S. Circulation 2010;121:1078-85.
The prevalence, distribution and clinical outcomes of electrocardiographic repolarisation patterns in male athletes of African/Afro-Caribbean origin. Papadakis M, Carre F, Kervio G, Rawlins J, Panoulas VF, Chandra N, Basavarajaiah S, Carby L, Fonseca T, Sharma S. Eur Heart J 2011;32:2304-13.
Cardiac adaptation to exercise in adolescent athletes of African ethnicity: an emergent elite athletic population.
Sheikh N, Papadakis M, Carre F, Kervio G, Panoulas VF, Ghani S, Zaidi A, Gati S, Rawlins J, Wilson MG, Sharma S. Br J Sports Med 2013;47:585-92.
Impact of ethnicity upon cardiovascular adaptation in competitive athletes: relevance to preparticipation screening.
Papadakis M, Wilson MG, Ghani S, Kervio G, Carre F, Sharma S. Br J Sports Med 2012;46:i22-i28.

Notes to editor

Dr Aneil Malhotra, Cardiology research fellow
Dr Michael Papadakis, Lecturer in Cardiology, St George’s University of London
Prof Sanjay Sharma, Professor of Clinical Cardiology, St George’s University of London