Kolkata: Hidden heart ailment can cause sudden death

KOLKATA: The death of cricketer Sonu Yadav during a match was a classic example of sudden cardiac death (SCD), felt doctors. The 24-year-old had undergone a thorough check-up in November. But no health issue, including any

heart ailment

, was detected. Doctors said SCD can strike a youngster in the middle of a competitive sporting activity like

cricket

, football or swimming. Undetected heart conditions, chest trauma or sports medicine abuse could be behind such a death.


“Depressed pumping of the heart, certain difficulty in detecting electrical abnormalities of the heart, family history of SCD, etc could pose a threat to a person in competitive sports,” said Dr Suvro Banerjee, cardiologist at Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals.

Most SCDs are caused by abnormal heart rhythm known as arrhythmia, the most fatal being ventricular fibrillation, which is disorganized firing of impulses from the ventricles. This renders the heart unable to pump blood, causing death within minutes.

“Structural heart diseases like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (in which there is an abnormal thickness in a portion of the heart), valve stenosis (whereby the heart valves get narrowed), ventricular tachycardia (where the heartbeat goes up because of abnormal electrical activities in the ventricle) can also cause sudden death,” said Dr PK Hazra, cardiologist with AMRI Hospitals, Dhakuria.

Doctors said some of these irregularities may not show up during regular screening or it may escape eyes of sports medicine specialists who are mostly general physicians. “That is why in case of the slightest doubt, a young person in competitive sports should be referred to a proper cardiologist for correct diagnosis and treatment,” Banerjee said.

In February this year, a budding cricketer, Aniket Sharma (21), collapsed during a workout in Tallah Park. He was declared brought dead at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. Few days later, Ritwik Das (23) from Odisha died while playing football in an inter-college tournament in SAI complex in Salt Lake.

Hazra also pointed out some dangerous trends among sportspersons such as abuse of certain medications and sudden changes in diet. These could interfere with the functioning of the heart. “Sports medicine practitioners are more into the fitness and orthopaedic aspects. That’s why all those into competitive sports should undergo screening at a proper cardiac set-up by a cardiologist,” said Hazra.

Experts also said that in some people, volume of a hormone called catecholamine released into the blood increases with rise in physical activity. This can cause chaotic contraction of the heart, posing a threat to life. In cardiac arrest, there are chances of reviving and resuscitating the patient. However, in SCD there is no such scope.

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