Is the Italian model effective in identifying cardiovascular disorders in young athletes?
The efficacy of the Italian screening programme in the identification of cardiomyopathies is established. Evidence suggests, however, that the strategy is not effective in detecting athletes with congenital coronary anomalies or premature coronary atherosclerosis. 17 In a large population based study of screening outcomes in 33 735 young athletes in the Veneto region of Italy, 621 (1.8%) were disqualified because of an identified cardiovascular disorder. Of these, 22 (0.07%) were considered to have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, predominantly (73%) on the basis of an abnormal electrocardiogram. 13 This frequency is similar to that observed in a population based study in the United States, which used echocardiography, suggesting that the Italian model performs as well as echocardiography in detecting hypertrophic cardio myopathy. 18 The specificity of the Italian programme in excluding the diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was also assessed in a study of 4450 elite athletes who wer
