Sudden cardiac death is especially common in younger people, especially athletes, who usually are unaware of their condition. The risk for SCD is higher in children, teens, and young adults, because they’re more prone to experiencing ventricular tachycardia. But research on the prevalence of SCD among youth with HCM specifically is limited.
By reputation, many of these deaths are said to occur among young athletes during intense training or competitive play. But it’s important to know that SCD doesn’t exclusively occur when a person is performing intense physical activity. While the abnormal heart rhythms that lead to SCD can strike during exercise, they can also happen during rest or sleep.
In many cases, when SCD occurs in a young athlete, their HCM was undetected. “If it’s a 15-year-old who died on the football field, most of the time we didn’t know he had a heart condition,” says Matthew Martinez, MD, the director of Atlantic Health System Sports Cardiology at Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, New Jersey. “People who are diagnosed and treated can return to [their] sport and do really well.”
If you’re a young person with HCM or the parent of a child with HCM, talk with your cardiologist. In recent years, new SCD risk assessment tools have been developed specifically for pediatric HCM patients. Your cardiologist can use these tools to evaluate your or your child’s overall risk, helping you make a better informed decision about preventive treatment options, such as an ICD.
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