There is a massive war being waged around planet Earth right now. Millions of innocent men, women, children and babies are dying or suffering. The enemy causing all this death and destruction is Heart Disease. But out of the ashes rises phoenix-like a new breed of Superhero. You see Heart Disease made a fatal mistake. It left some survivors who are now seeking their revenge. These real life superheroes are CARDIAC ATHLETES. Read their stories, listen to their wise words, follow their examples and protect yourself and the lives of all your loved ones from this pernicious enemy.

Chapter 8 Cardiovascular Screening for the Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death in AthletesIntroduction; The Risk of Sudden Death in Athletes; Rationale for Screening Competitive Athletes; The Screening Programmes Implemented in Italy; Rationale for Including a 12-Lead ECG in the PPE ; Efficacy of Screening to Identify Cardiac Disease Risk; Impact of the Screening Programme on Cardiac Mortality; Costs of Systematic Screening across Italy; Limitations of Screening Programmes; Conclusion; References

Athlete's Heart: A Multimodal Approach – From Physiological to Pathological Cardiac Adaptations provides a complete overview of all adaptations of the heart to sport practice by highlighting the different diagnosis between athlete's heart and pathological remodeling. Written by international experts in the field, chapters discuss ECG findings, echocardiogram data, cardiac magnetic resonance and new forms of multimodality imaging, providing readers with evidence-based guidance on how to differentiate athlete's heart from cardiomyopathies. Athlete's heart is the term given to a constellation of cardiac structural, functional and electrical remodeling that accompanies regular athletic training. Due to the substantial phenotypic overlap between electrical and structural changes observed in the physiological athletic heart remodeling and pathological changes resulted from inherited or acquired cardiomyopathies, distinguishing between adaptive and maladaptive cardiovascular response to exercise is a challenging task. - Presents a comprehensive overview of exercise-induced cardiac adaptations - Provides practical aspects for a differential diagnosis between a physiological and a pathological cardiac remodeling - Includes new imaging technics, with a special focus on multi-modality imaging, such as exercise echocardiography, and new echocardiographic modalities (3D Strain)

Providing a critical update and review of salient topics needed for the proper cardiac evaluation and care of athletes, this text is designed to be the most up-to-date and practical manual for all health care providers who evaluate and treat athletes, including sports cardiologists, general cardiologists, sports medicine specialists, team doctors and athletic trainers. The book is divided into three key sections. The first section ​discusses essential topics pertaining to the pre-participation cardiac screening of athletes, providing a framework for how best to perform pre-participation cardiac evaluations and optimize the interpret​at​ion of cardiac screening test results, and ​a guide to ​assist the streamlining of appropriate downstream testing ​when required. The second section reviews the management and care of athletes with specific, existing cardiovascular disorders, providing the reader with fundamental principles to help recognize and advise levels of sport participation to athletes with these disorders. The final section deals with acute sideline management of the symptomatic athlete and will again provide practical algorithms for cardiologists and non-cardiologists alike who are responsible for athlete health and safety in the sports arenas and training facilities. Written and edited by highly regarded experts in the field of sports cardiology, including several cardiologists who are collegiate and professional team physicians and who work with professional sports organizations on developing policies for cardiac screening and monitoring, Sports Cardiology is an excellent practical resource for all clinicians working in the field.

The Topol Solution gives you a complete print and multimedia package consisting of Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine, Third Edition, a DVD, and access to a wealth of online resources. Updated throughout by renowned international authorities, Dr. Topol's best-selling text provides a comprehensive, contemporary view of every area of cardiovascular medicine--preventive cardiology; clinical cardiology; cardiovascular imaging; electrophysiology and pacing; invasive cardiology and surgical techniques; heart failure and transplantation; molecular cardiology; and vascular biology and medicine. The bound-in DVD contains the full text, plus heart sounds, an image/chart/table bank, and videos of procedures--catheterization, CT/MRI, echocardiography, electrophysiology and pacing, intravascular ultrasonography, nuclear cardiology, and surgery. The Topol Solution Website includes the fully searchable text, heart sounds, and an image/chart/table bank downloadable to PowerPoint--plus questions and answers from The Cleveland Clinic Cardiology Board Review; a PDA download of cardiology drug facts; quarterly articles from Critical Pathways in Cardiology, and links to other cardiology Websites.FEATURES: - Thoroughly updated Third Edition of best-selling Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine, plus DVD and instant access to a wealth of online resources- THE TEXT: - Renowned international contributors- A comprehensive, contemporary view of every area of cardiovascular medicine-preventive cardiology; clinical cardiology; cardiovascular imaging; electrophysiology and pacing; invasive cardiology and surgical techniques; heart failure and transplantation; molecular cardiology; and vascular biology and medicine- Focus on clinical material, particularly the application of clinical research to practice- Each chapter includes comments on current controversies and pioneering insights into future developments- THE BOUND-IN DVD: - Full content of book- Heart sounds-a

Too much exercise can kill you. The Haywire Heart is the first book to examine heart conditions in athletes. Intended for anyone who competes in endurance sports like cycling, triathlon, running races of all distances, and cross-country skiing, The Haywire Heart presents the evidence that going too hard or too long can damage your heart forever. You’ll find what to watch out for, what to do about it, and how to protect your heart so you can enjoy the sports you love for years to come. The Haywire Heart shares the developing research into a group of conditions known as “athlete’s heart”, starting with a wide-ranging look at the warning signs, symptoms, and how to recognize your potential risk. Leading cardiac electrophysiologist and masters athlete Dr. John Mandrola explores the prevention and treatment of heart conditions in athletes like arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation and flutter, tachycardia, hypertrophy, and coronary artery disease. He reviews new research about exercise intensity and duration, recovery, inflammation and calcification, and the ways athletes inflict lasting harm. These heart problems are appearing with alarming frequency among masters athletes who are pushing their bodies harder than ever in the hope that exercise will keep them healthy and strong into their senior years. The book is complete with gripping case studies of elite and age-group athletes from journalist Chris Caselike the scary condition that nearly killed cyclist and coauthor Lennard Zinnand includes a frank discussion of exercise addiction and the mental habits that prevent athletes from seeking medical help when they need it. Dr. Mandrola explains why many doctors misdiagnose heart conditions in athletes and offers an invaluable guide on how to talk with your doctor about your condition and its proven treatments. He covers known heart irritants, training and rest modifications, effective medicines, and safe supplements that can reduce the likelihood of heart damage from exercise. Heart conditions affect hardcore athletes as well as those who take up sports seeking better health and weight loss. The Haywire Heart is a groundbreaking and critically important guide to heart care for athletes. By protecting your heart now and watching for the warning signs, you can avoid crippling heart conditions and continue to exercise and compete for years to come.

Participation in athletics at both the recreational and competitive levels has grown enormously over the last decade, and now involves a substantial segment of the population of many countries, particularly those in Europe and North America. This change in the life-style of many individuals has been accompanied by the desire and necessity on the part of physicians to define the consequences of chronic athletic training and competition to the participant. Coincident with the of public interest in sporting competition has been the evolution and growth development of new non-invasive technologies in cardiology (such as M-mode and two-dimensional echocardiography and radionuclide angiography) which have permitted investigators to study directly and more precisely the morphology and function of the heart and cardiovascular system. Hence, over the past several years our knowledge has been greatly enhanced with regard to the features of the normal 'athlete heart' and the relationship of athletic conditioning to preexistent cardiovascular disease, as well as the causes of sudden death in athletes. The present treatise on 'Sports cardiology: Exercise in Health and Cardio vascular Disease' is an impressive reference document which is also timely. It fulfills an important role in summarizing most of the available data that has been accumulated over the last 10 years in a large number of athletes participating in a variety of different sports. Drs. I. Bekaert and R.