Background and aims: The relationship between ethnicity and causes of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in athletes is poorly understood.
Objectives: To investigate etiology of SCD among different ethnicities in a large cohort of athletes.
Methods: Between 1994 and November 2022, 7880 cases of SCD were consecutively referred from all over the United Kingdom to our national cardiac pathology centre; 848 (11%) were athletes. All cases underwent detailed autopsy evaluation by expert cardiac pathologists. Clinical information was obtained from referring coroners.
Results: Most of athletes were white (n = 758; 89%). Black and Asian athletes were 51 (6%) and 39 (5%) respectively. A structurally normal heart, indicative of sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS) was the most common autopsy finding (n = 385, 45%), followed by myocardial diseases (n = 275; 32%) cases, atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD) (n = 58, 7%) and coronary artery anomalies (n = 29, 3%). In most of cases, death occurred during exercise (n = 737; 87%) . Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) was more common in black (n = 13; 25%) than in white (n = 109; 14%) and Asian (n = 3; 8%) athletes (p = 0.03 between black and white athletes; p = 0.04 between black and Asian athletes); in contrast, CAD was more common in Asians (n = 6; 15% vs n = 51; 7% in whites vs 2% n = 1; in blacks, p = 0.02 between Asian and black athletes). Among white athletes, ACM was more common in individuals who died during exercise than in the ones who died at rest (p = 0.005). Such a difference was not observed in Asian and black athletes. In Asian athletes, CAD was the diagnosis at autopsy in 18% of individuals who died during exercise and in none of individuals who died at rest.
Conclusions: A structurally normal heart at autopsy and myocardial diseases are the most common findings in athletes who died suddenly. While ACM is more common in black athletes, atherosclerotic CAD is more common in Asian athletes, with a strong association with exercise-induced SCD. ACM appears to be a driver of exercise-induced SCD in white athletes, however this is not the case in black and Asian athletes.
Keywords: athletes; ethnicity; sudden cardiac death.
A sudden death in an athlete is an uncommon but highly tragic event which appears almost paradoxical, as athletes epitomize the healthiest segment of society. Inherited and familiar cardiac conditions are the main causes of sudden death in young individuals and athletes. Studies on this matter have mainly focused on Caucasian athletes and the frequency or the causes of sudden death in athletes of other ethnicities is largely unknown. Our study focusses on this aspect and reveals that causes of sudden death may highly vary among athletes of different race. The circumstances of death differ significantly among various ethnicities, even looking at the same underlying cardiac condition.
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