Cricket and Cardiology

T20 world cup cricket is starting from today in Bangladesh. Less than 18 years after playing their first competitive match, Nepal has reached the world stage by qualifying for the World T20. In the qualification tournament, Nepal was third, after defeating UAE in the playoff game in November 2013. Cricket has become very popular in Nepal and we all Nepalese are excited about T20 world cup, as this is our maiden appearance.

There are several incidences of players collapsing during match. In 1906, one player died in the ground due to heart attack while playing match at the age of 23 years probably from heavy smoking. He attempted to return to the field of play even when in great pain. There are plenty of reported incidences of players collapsing during match due to heart attack, cardiac arrest. A list of them can be seen in this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_association_footballers_who_died_while_playing

Promising Worcestershire cricket star Parvaz Mirza, aged 24, was a right-arm fast bowler considered one of the best players in his county.  He died suddenly one night in 1995. He had a routine medical check-up, unfortunately, that did not include the heart screening which could have saved his life.

According to a study in the British Medical Journal, regular cardiac check-ups could dramatically reduce the number of athletes who die from sudden cardiac arrest by identifying medical problems early on. My personal recommendation is that mandatory heart screening should be introduced for all athletes taking part in competitive sports. Pre-partipication screening can reduce the mortality by 89% in competitive athletes [Am J Cardiol. 2009; 104: 276-280].

Many countries have introduced mandatory cardiac screening for their sports men and women; however, in Nepal cardiac screening is not introduced in cricket as part of the general health inspection process. Though,
some of these deaths are not predictable or preventable in asymptomatic athletes by the use of common screening tests. But screening is simple--just doing one ECG and Echocardiography is all that is required. By doing these two tests we cardiologist can diagnose the possible causes for sport-related sudden cardiac death such as Long QT syndrome, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, coronary heart disease, dilated cardiomyopathy, ARVD and many more. Another important factor is the family history of sudden cardiac death at a young age.

 

These simple tests are non-invasive and painless and we could identify people who are at high or moderate risk of having a cardiac event during sport.

ALL THE BEST TEAM NEPAL !!!!