July 29, 2005
By Brent Annear and Pam Udall, Texas Medicine Reports

The sudden death of a high school friend made a lifelong impression on George Rodgers. What made it harder to comprehend was that the student, one of the school’s best athletes, died unexpectedly while competing in a track meet. The cause? Heart disease. “This issue is what essentially got me interested in cardiology,” says George Rodgers, MD. A physician at the Austin Heart Hospital, Dr. Rodgers shares his story in the August issue of Texas Medicine, the official magazine of the Texas Medical Association. He explains that his high school friend died of sudden cardiac death resulting from a physical condition that neither he nor his family knew he had. Texas Medicine reports that sudden cardiac death kills between 1 in 100,000 and 1 in 300,000 high school age athletes nationwide, not terribly common but terrible nonetheless. Among the condition’s causes are hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, coronary artery abnormalities, or Marfan syndrome. So physicians like Dr. Rodgers are working to prevent such sudden premature deaths, the magazine reports. The Austin Heart Foundation, of which he is president, screens high school athletes for one of the heart conditions that can lead to sudden cardiac death, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. “Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an odd heart condition because it does not impair sports ability. It's a difficult thing to pick up with a stethoscope, but easy to pick up with an echocardiogram,” Dr. Rodgers tells Texas Medicine. Some people in the sports and medical communities question whether such screens are necessary, as the deaths are relatively rare, magazine notes. High costs, potentially unnecessary exclusion from competition, and extra stress on the part of the athletes undergoing such tests are reasons to question the test, they reason, especially if it yields false positive results.

Yet similar deaths in recent years have prompted another preemptive action. The University Interscholastic League (UIL) established a medical advisory committee to examine the health and safety of students involved in sports. One step the group took was to design a form intended to document the student’s medical history as well as the results of his or her physical, the magazine explains. The Austin Heart Foundation has implemented another potentially lifesaving program, Texas Medicine reports. Keeping the Beat teaches students how to use automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in the event of an emergency.

TMA is the largest state medical society in the nation, representing more than 40,000 physician and medical student members. It is located in Austin and has 120 component county medical societies around the state.