According to a new study, death rates due to sudden cardiac arrest are comparatively rare. Results of a study, which has been published in the journal Circulation, show that 18, 66 athletes (aged 8-39) in the US died or survived due to cardiac arrest during 1980-2006.

Nearly half of these athletes died because of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition that occurs due to heart enlargement and which is often found using routine ECGs.

In many European countries, athletes have to undergo ECGs as for their prescreening. The debates, on whether the US must call for further precise and vast screening tests for athletes, still continue.

The American Heart Association has suggested vigorous tests if there are questions related to family history or other issues.

Dr. Barry Maron, who is one of the lead authors of the study, says: “The lower numbers of cardiac sudden deaths that have been reported in younger athletes raise some doubts and we need to consider prescreening tests just as are being used in Italy.”

During the six year study follow-up period, cardiovascular disease caused 66 athlete deaths on average and according to Maron, in nearly 30% cases cardiovascular problems weren’t identified in ECGs and other tests. Similarly, when it comes to other cardiovascular related death, nearly 22% deaths occur because of blunt trauma in which the heart of the victim gets structurally damaged.