ACSM-AMSSM Call to Action: Adapting Preparticipation Cardiovascular Screening to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Preparticipation cardiovascular screening, designed to identify cardiovascular pathology responsible for sudden unexpected death, is recommended by all major professional medical organizations overseeing the clinical care of competitive athletes. Data from several large, prospective, cohort studies indicate that cardiac imaging findings consistent with inflammatory heart disease following COVID-19 infection are more common than most forms of heart disease associated with sudden death during exercise. This call-to-action document is intended to provide recommendations about how routine preparticipation cardiovascular screening for young competitive athletes — which has the capacity to detect both COVID-19 cardiovascular complications and pathology unrelated to infection — should be altered to account for recent scientific advances.