Cardiac evaluation of paediatric athletes

Cardiac screening with personal and family medical history, physical examination and 12-lead resting electrocardiogram (ECG) should be performed and should start no later than the age of 12 years.

Implementing a screening programme requires ensuring the availability of necessary healthcare resources.

One transthoracic echocardiogram may be appropriate to identify high-risk structural cardiac diseases not identifiable on ECG, provided appropriate infrastructure for baseline diagnostic assessments is in place.

Suggested definitions of normal, borderline and abnormal ECG findings in paediatric athletes are included.

Detailed advice is provided for further evaluation if suspicious findings are identified on initial tests.