Heart screening

bryangiggsy

With the death of 2 twenty something yr olds in the half and full marathons this year has anyone in the tri community gone for heart screening for any pre existing conditions ? Should it be enouraged even promoted by TI ?

Kurt Godel

bryangiggsy wrote: »

With the death of 2 twenty something yr olds in the half and full marathons this year has anyone in the tri community gone for heart screening for any pre existing conditions ? Should it be enouraged even promoted by TI ?

Statistically: no, it shouldn't. There have been studies which show an increased risk of heart failure for athletes in endurance (3hr+) events, compared to sedentary groups, but not enough of a risk for TI to actively promote or encourage heart screening.

elvis jones

Of course not, drafting is soooooooooo much more important:rolleyes:

j0hn1

I had too many nurses freaking me out about my low heart over the past few years to ignore
Started worrying about sudden adult death (probably like you are now bryangiggsy?) and consulting Dr Google

Enough was enough earlier this year and spoke to the GP about an ECG, despite him saying that I didn't need it he arranged for me to have it done anyway and all came back clear

If you're worried just get it done, I had been trying to convince myself for 3 years that I wasn't a risk but in the end I just had to do something about it

tunney

bryangiggsy wrote: »

With the death of 2 twenty something yr olds in the half and full marathons this year has anyone in the tri community gone for heart screening for any pre existing conditions ? Should it be enouraged even promoted by TI ?

A friend of my wife's family died in his sleep aged 19, should we have sleep related health checks in case we die in our sleep?

Whats the advantage of knowing the risk? If you know you have to notify and if you notify certain covers are prohibitive or impossible.

Anyways I think after 10+ years of it if I was going to die I'd be dead.

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Statistically: no, it shouldn't. There have been studies which show an increased risk of heart failure for athletes in endurance (3hr+) events, compared to sedentary groups, but not enough of a risk for TI to actively promote or encourage heart screening.

Agree, plus you can always get a virus and that attacks your heart muscle and bang - dead. Happened on Holby city there on Tuesday.

elvis jones wrote: »

Of course not, drafting is soooooooooo much more important:rolleyes:

Heart attack testing is probably more relevant for some than others.

Beasty

Cycling Ireland have produced a simple questionaire to help raise awareness and identify some of the risk factors to look out for to encourage anyone that may be a reletively high risk to get themselves checked out

BennyMul

this is something I have been putting off for a while, Had an episode many years ago where my heart went mad, severe palpitations and could not find the cause, after a week it stopped.
did get the same looks for a slow hr, was in the low 30's when relaxed.

I do get the occasional fast beating when stopping an interval, after a few seconds its grand again.

so thinking I should get up off my .... and get a check up.

Oryx

elvis jones wrote: »

Of course not, drafting is soooooooooo much more important:rolleyes:

To be honest, rules of the sport are the governing bodies concern, an individual athletes health is their own concern. I think that is as it should be.

And along with getting ourselves checked out, it is no harm to learn CPR and the use of an AED. If one of your clubmates went clunk in a training session, would you know what to do?

nerraw1111

Good read here, including quotes from a consultant cardiologist.

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/health/just-how-definitive-is-heart-screen-process-26896905.html

We know a multitude of things that cause sudden adult death. There is, for example, an abnormality of the electrical currents within the heart," says consultant cardiologist Kieran Daly.

"We know of a whole raft of congenital conditions that lead to it, but at the same time there is no guarantee that screening will pick up all of these."

elvis jones

Oryx wrote: »

To be honest, rules of the sport are the governing bodies concern, an individual athletes health is their own concern. I think that is as it should be.

And along with getting ourselves checked out, it is no harm to learn CPR and the use of an AED. If one of your clubmates went clunk in a training session, would you know what to do?[/QUOTE]

Having done 1st aid and learned how to use an AED i'd hope so ( but finding one is the problem )

But like the GAA & FAI have done in the past i do feel the governing body should advise on getting ourselves checked out as i think you'd agree the last thing they'd want is someone going "clunk" in one of their sanctioned races.

I had a friend who was a pro footballer and only for a heart screening during a proposed transfer a problem with his heart ( and his fathers in turn ) might never have showed up and both could be dead now.

Deals on runners, bags, physio etc is all well and good but it would be nice to see by 55 quid going to something that could actually save a life at some point.

Having said all that i do agree we all have a personal responsability to look after own own health and well being.

mloc123

Oryx wrote: »

To be honest, rules of the sport are the governing bodies concern, an individual athletes health is their own concern. I think that is as it should be.

Agree, it is not up to them to decide if the chip eating, beer drinking 16 stone man decides after 30yrs of inactivity to start racing. Races generally have a waiver, if you are a heart attack risk... don't enter.

elvis jones

mloc123 wrote: »

Agree, it is not up to them to decide if the chip eating, beer drinking 16 stone man decides after 30yrs of inactivity to start racing. Races generally have a waiver, if you are a heart attack risk... don't enter.

If only it was just that type of person that was getting the heart attacks etc during sport:(

Waylander79

Laya Healthcare do free heart screening across all their plans. Got it done, got the green light and while it doesn't make much difference to me it makes the people around me who don't understand my training feel a lot better.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Everyone should get checked out as part of a yearly check up.

Whilst the 2 deaths are tragic (and 2 too many) it still represents a very small % of those who ran in both races, 0.0001% to be precise.

mloc123

My question is... you get screened and it shows you are at risk, do you live the rest of your life in fear?

Waylander79

mloc123 wrote: »

My question is... you get screened and it shows you are at risk, do you live the rest of your life in fear?

At the moment a lot of us probably do anaerobic training where we go close to maximum heart rate for extended periods. For me having the screening completed gives me confidence in pushing myself to those kind of limits. If I had uncovered problems during the screening I'd still be very active but I'd be making different choices in terms of how I stay active.

Also when my family express concerns that I'm pushing myself too hard and I tell them that I know my own body it doesn't do much to make them feel better but having the result of the heart screening certainly did. It's only a small point but it was important for me none the less.

bryangiggsy

I think it is important to get screened at least once. I have had an ecg, stress test and echo done in the mater a couple of yrs ago. Ecg shows up any electrical problems.. Echo s show up any structural problems with chambers, wall thicknesses, valves etc. both were clear and probably would be for 99 % of people. Am happy i got them done.

elvis jones

mloc123 wrote: »

My question is... you get screened and it shows you are at risk, do you live the rest of your life in fear?

Depends on the risk, going back to my friend he had an operation and tablets. He's now doing adventure racing and back to full fitness, thankfully.

But i see what you mean, is it better not to know.

MrCreosote

At the population and organisational level, screening should not be pushed. The last thing that is needed is yet another barrier to physical activity. ECG alone isn't enough, and giving everyone a stress test and ECHO would pretty rapidly overwhelm the health system, and even then would miss plenty of the heart causes of sudden death as well as all the other non-heart ones. In countries where they do it like Italy with soccer the payoff in deaths prevented doesn't justify the investment (or, at least there are better ways of investing the money)

For an individual, I suppose it depends on what level of risk you're comfortable with, and being aware that even having every test in the world is only going to lower you risk, not eliminate it.

BennyMul

bryangiggsy wrote: »

I think it is important to get screened at least once. I have had an ecg, stress test and echo done in the mater a couple of yrs ago. Ecg shows up any electrical problems.. Echo s show up any structural problems with chambers, wall thicknesses, valves etc. both were clear and probably would be for 99 % of people. Am happy i got them done.

mind me asking where you got this done, I assume its not something any doctor can carry out?

thanks.

griffin100

mloc123 wrote: »

My question is... you get screened and it shows you are at risk, do you live the rest of your life in fear?

Not necessarily. My son suffers from one of the conditions that can cause sudden adult death syndrome. It almost killed him at 9 weeks old and we were very lucky to catch it. It would have shown up with a simple ECG, hence the push in the UK and to some extent here for ECG's for newborns....but that's a different story. Today at 8 years old he still has the condition, it can be seen quite clearly on his ECG trace but he is sports mad. He can swim 100m faster than some of the posters here :P, he plays football, soccer, basketball and runs depending on the time of the year. He has county championship medals in swimming and running. We worry about him but his cardiologist doesn't, so these conditions are not a barrier to sports.

Some of the responses in this thread are as you would expect, it's a bit like a should I wear a helmet thread in the cycling forum - the hardcore cyclists say no, they offer minimal protection, whilst the pro helmet lobby are in favour as some protection is better than none. In my opinion it's the same with the hearth screening, if you want to do it go ahead, if you don't then fine, but don't try and put off anyone else who does.

bryangiggsy

BennyMul wrote: »

mind me asking where you got this done, I assume its not something any doctor can carry out?

thanks.

Got my screening done in the mater private chest pain clinic. It was not covered by vhi so a bit expensive (380 if i remember correctly ) but a once off and worth it imo

MrCreosote

griffin100 wrote: »

Not necessarily. My son suffers from one of the conditions that can cause sudden adult death syndrome. It almost killed him at 9 weeks old and we were very lucky to catch it. It would have shown up with a simple ECG, hence the push in the UK and to some extent here for ECG's for newborns....but that's a different story. Today at 8 years old he still has the condition, it can be seen quite clearly on his ECG trace but he is sports mad. He can swim 100m faster than some of the posters here :P, he plays football, soccer, basketball and runs depending on the time of the year. He has county championship medals in swimming and running. We worry about him but his cardiologist doesn't, so these conditions are not a barrier to sports.

Some of the responses in this thread are as you would expect, it's a bit like a should I wear a helmet thread in the cycling forum - the hardcore cyclists say no, they offer minimal protection, whilst the pro helmet lobby are in favour as some protection is better than none. In my opinion it's the same with the hearth screening, if you want to do it go ahead, if you don't then fine, but don't try and put off anyone else who does.

The helmet thing is the same problem that comes up with screening. Everyone focusses on the time the helmet helped, but you have to take into account the fact that you're more likely to be hit wearing a helmet (cars give you less room) , and compulsory helmet wearing wrecks cycling numbers and makes the roads less safe for all cyclists. I always wear one myself, but compulsory helmet wearing laws are a disaster.

Same thing with heart screening- what about all the false positive tests, and people unnecessarily excluded from sports, or having tests and worry they don't need. Or the money needed to fund an army of cardiologists at 200k a year to do all the ECHOs. Meantime granny's wait on a trolley in A&E for her hip operation gets another day longer.

Just like with helmets, it an individual wants to get screening done, then fair enough, but it shouldn't be forced on everybody.

RayCun

MrCreosote wrote: »

the fact that you're more likely to be hit wearing a helmet (cars give you less room)

hooray, another place to hold the eternal helmet debate! Soon it shall take over the world!

But really, given how bad drivers are at paying attention to cyclists, I find it very hard to believe that, even on a subconscious level, they notice whether or not cyclists are wearing helmets and change their behaviour as a result. I would want to examine that test protocol very very closely

Diamond_25

anybody got any idea on how much a screening test would cost?

shotgunmcos

Diamond_25 wrote: »

anybody got any idea on how much a screening test would cost?

I've been referred to Cardiologist to get the checks done, ECG, Echo, 24hr BP monitor etc.. and its circa 500 yoyos on top of VHI :eek:

Although I believe there are public service options available too, depending where you are