Sudden Cardiac Death in Professional Soccer Players

Soccer is a demanding sport: during a 90-min game, professional players run about 10 km at high average intensities (close to the anaerobic threshold, at 80% to 90% of maximal heart rate) and with numerous explosive bursts (e.g., jumping, sprinting) (2). [...]active players with undetected cardiovascular abnormalities may be at risk for exertional SCD. Table 1 List of All Documented Cardiac-Related Deaths (SCDs) Among Professional Soccer Players Since 2000 (All Men) Three cases are not shown in the table: 1 player (age 31 years) had an acute myocardial ischemic episode with resuscitated VT during a match in the Spanish league, second division (2010); 1 player (age 24 years) experienced cardiac arrest and collapsed during a match in the Football Association Challenge Cup (2012) for 78 minutes and was resuscitated afterward; and 1 player (age 21 years) had an arrhythmia during a match in the Belgian league (2009) and was resuscitated by an internal cardioverter-defibrillator (implanted after having an undetermined heart condition diagnosed in 2008).? = unknown; ARVC = arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy; C = collapse; CA = cardiac arrest; HA = heart attack; HCM = hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; S = stroke; SCD = sudden cardiac death; T&T = Trinidad & Tobago; VT = ventricular tachycardia; UAE = United Arab Emirates; UK = United Kingdom. No No Ivory Coast 2012 21 C Yes Yes Yes Romania 2017 35 HA ? ? No Botswana 2012 27 CA Yes Yes Yes India 1 J. Scharhag, P. Bohm, J. Dvorak, T. Meyer, F-MARC: the FIFA Sudden Death Registry (FIFA-SDR), Br J Sports Med, Vol. 49, 2015, 563-565 2 T. Stolen, K. Chamari, C. Castagna, U. Wisloff, Physiology of soccer: an update, Sports Med, Vol. 35, 2005, 501-536 3 J.H. Kim, R. Malhotra, G. Chiampas, Cardiac arrest during long-distance running races, N Engl J Med, Vol. 366, 2012, 130-140 4 D. Corrado, C. Basso, A. Pavei, P. Michieli, M. Schiavon, G. Thiene, Trends in sudden cardiovascular death in young competitive athletes after implementation of a preparticipation screening program, JAMA, Vol. 296, 2006, 1593-1601 5 D. Mohananey, A. Masri, R.M. Desai, Global incidence of sports-related sudden cardiac death, J Am Coll Cardiol, Vol. 69, 2017, 2672-2673