Heart failure & cardiomyopathiesCohort study
Return-to-Play for Athletes With Desmosomal Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy
- retrospective review of electronic medical record
- single-center
Authors' conclusion
This is the first single-center cohort of patients with ACM being empowered to RTP and remain athletes. These athletes have exhibited higher rates of BCEs and disease conversion/progression than our athletes with a variety of other genetic heart diseases. Further studies are needed to determine how to further guide safe sports participation in genetically mediated ACM.
Study context
- Population
- Self-identified athletes with genotype-positive ACM evaluated at Mayo Clinic Windland Smith Rice Genetic Heart Rhythm Clinic between July 2000 and February 2025genotype-positive athletes with ACM identified from 1,229 registry patients · PKP2-ACM 61 · DSP-ACM 32
- Participants
- 138 athletes
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Athletes with at least 1 breakthrough cardiac event (BCE)
34 athletes (25%)
Total BCEs
68 events
Patients with BCEs following physician-approved return-to-play (RTP)
6 patients experienced 14 BCEs
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
BCE rate · median follow-up of 25 months (IQR: 6-71)
- Overall event rate, entire cohort
- 7.9 BCEs per 100 patient-years (95 % CI: 5.8-10.5)
- Event rate after physician-approved RTP
- 14.6 per 100 patient-years (95% CI: 7.8-24.9)
Context of BCEs during RTP period
- One-half of BCEs occurred during sports participation; remainder at rest or unknown context
Original publication
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it