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Introduction Of Sudden Cardiac Death

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Introduction
Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is the leading cause of death in exercising young athletes. 1 Current estimates of the incidence of SCD in athletes range from almost one in a million to 1:23,000 athletes per year, while some subpopulations of athletes are reported at even higher risk with an incidence of 1 in 3,000. 2 Such deaths often receive more attention because of the youth of the victims and the perception that physically trained athletes are healthy. 3 SCD is often a result of structural cardiac abnormalities that can be detected through the use of pre-participation physicals. 1 Pre-participation cardiovascular screening is the systematic practice of medically evaluating large, general populations of athletes before participation to eliminate risk of SCD. 3 The National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) requires BOC (Board of Certification) certified athletic trainers to be educated, trained, and evaluated in six major practice domains. 4 Prevention and clinical evaluation are two of the six domains. The American Heart Association suggests that pre-screening athletes can improve the detection of cardiac abnormalities. 5 Athletic Trainers are increasingly required to be the health care professionals administering pre-participation physicals. Athletic trainers need to have clinical competence such as knowledge and skill, and confidence in performing cardiac auscultations to effectively detect cardiac abnormalities in athletes. The purpose of this study is

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