{"doi":"10.1016/j.hroo.2025.07.104","title":"Preparticipation electrocardiogram screening in a Gulf Coast community: A prospective study","abstract":"Background: Sudden cardiac death in young athletes is a devastating event unparalleled in the sports community. The debate over electrocardiogram (ECG) screening of young athletes has been ongoing for many years and recommendations vary widely. Objective: We prospectively studied students in coastal Alabama to compare the detection rate of life-threatening cardiac pathology using a 12-lead ECG vs a preparticipation questionnaire. Methods: A total of 2604 students in coastal Alabama aged 5-22 years (median age, 15 years) were included between 2014 and 2019. They completed the American Heart Association (AHA) 14-point preparticipation questionnaire and underwent a 12-lead ECG. Results: Of participants answering the questionnaire, 60.2% were men, 81.4% were White, and 10.7% were Black. There were 306 (11.9%) of 2565 students who reported symptoms that would have triggered referral to a cardiologist, with the most common (88.2%) being chest pain, shortness of breath, and palpitations. Of 2604 ECGs, 86 (3.3%) were abnormal, with the most frequent findings (54.7%) being T wave inversions and pathologic Q waves. The AHA screening questionnaire had a sensitivity of 33.0% and specificity of 78.7%, while the ECG screening had 100% sensitivity and 97.0% specificity. Three students (0.1%) were found to have conditions associated with sudden cardiac arrest which were detected by ECG, although only 1 of these students reported symptoms on the questionnaire which would have prompted a referral. Conclusion: The 14-point AHA questionnaire raised suspicion for unnecessary referrals while missing 66.0% of the life-threatening pathologies detected with ECG.","journal":"Heart Rhythm O2","year":2025,"id":542015,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9677,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":978041,"name":"Madhuri S. Mulekar","orcid":"0000-0001-8659-728X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1430706,"name":"Lynn A Batten","orcid":"0000-0001-9464-5691","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1430705,"name":"Lane A McLendon","orcid":"0000-0002-8232-4185","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":14,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:52:51.593043Z","pmid":"41357270","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}