ROCHESTER, N.Y. - It’s called “The Silent Killer” by heart doctors across America. Hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, a leading cause of sudden death in athletes often goes undetected until it’s too late.
“Unfortunately, the most common presentation is cardiac arrest,” Dr. Chad Teeters, the Chief of Cardiology at Highland Hospital said. “Most people don’t know that they have it until it occurs.
That is one of the reasons that Teeters has been one of the driving forces in putting these free heart screening clinics together.
“From a public heath standpoint across the United States, this isn’t something that’s done very commonly, and as a nation we’ve been slow to adopt it,” Teeters said. “The current recommendation by the American Heart Association is that if it can be done cost-effectively, it is reasonable to do. There’s no more cost-effective than free, so it’s obvious that this program fits.”
Students, or parents of the student (if the student is under 18) from the Fairport, Penfield, and Webster are eligible to sign up for the clinic. It will take place from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. on Saturday, February 12 at Penfield Family Medicine, 2212 Penfield Road, Suite 100.
The entire process should take approximately 15 minutes, and students will have their blood pressure checked and receive an EKG to check for abnormalities in heart activity.
“The information is recorded on a carbon copy sheet, we review it with students and their parents, they get a copy, and we keep one to send to their pediatrician if they’d like,” Teeters said.
Statistics show that HOCUM, as hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy is called affects approximately 1 out of every 500 people. If you do the math, more than a couple of Section Five athletes could be carrying the heart defect without knowing.
“The majority of the population are not competitive athletes, and often times these symptoms don’t present themselves unless you’re at a high level of exertion,” Teeters said, noting that many people may have the defect and never be affected throughout the course of their lives.
For parents, a free screening like this means peace of mind – at a price that can’t be argued with. Maggie Graziano is a nurse at Highland and has a son that plays basketball at Fairport. The decision to have him checked was a no-brainer.
“It’s for peace of mind. It’s not a very common issue but to have the test done without having to pay the thousands of dollars that it would cost is peace of mind knowing that when he goes out onto the basketball court and puts all of his effort into it, he won’t collapse to the ground or have any issues that put his life in danger.”
Teeters says plans are in the works for more of these clinics in the greater Rochester area in the near future, to both be preventative, and so that parents can have peace of mind.
“In Italy, they’ve made it the standard of care. All kids go through some sort of screening and they’ve cut their sports mortality by 90%. Granted, that’s not huge, but it is still significant for a small intervention at the end of the day. We have one of the largest athletic programs in the United States and it would be ideal if we could do this so we don’t have it happening to kids across the country.
For more information on how to sign up:
http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/hh/services-centers/cardiology/cardiology-event.cfm
