About 50 young athletes go into sudden cardiac arrest each year and die from a rare congenital heart defect called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM ). While some parent groups advocate for routine electrocardiogram (ECG) screening for youth athletes, sports administrator Donald Collins says attacking the HCM problem through education, by forming alliances between schools, leagues and sports governing bodies with
medical organizations and by the taking of detailed family history during a young athlete's pre-participation physical evaluation is a cost-effective approach to early detection.
