Background
Sports practice is like the Roman God Janus, it has two faces. On the one hand, regular physical activity promotes health and reduces cardiovascular risk factors1. On the other hand, the risk of heart failures is increased during and immediately after exercise2,3. These sports-related cardiac events concern both untrained and well-trained athletes with no previously known cardiac diseases4.
Sports-related sudden cardiac death in the general population is more frequent than often suspected5, 6. However it often occurs in a predictable setting, allowing preventing measures, prompt interventions and improving survival rates.
Aware of the lack of systematic information on sports-related cardiac events in Luxembourg, the SRMCV approached the Sports Medicine Research Laboratory of LIH for the project. This 5-year study was taken up in 2020 by the Fondation Coeur – Daniel Wagner and further developed under the direction of LIROMS. The general aim is to determine the sports-related cardiac event burden in Luxembourg and recommend appropriate risk mitigation strategies.
Project description
The general aim of this project is to determine the sports-related sudden cardiac event (SCE) burden in Luxembourg and recommend appropriate risk mitigation strategies.
The systematic data collection relies on 3 major sources to identify cases of SCE during or immediately after sport activities in Luxembourg:
– The online questionnaire featured on this website, where we rely on the information you can provide us if you witnessed a said incidence.
– The public media, both print and electronic, which will be regularly scanned for eligible cases.
– Direct witnesses and other publicly available information concerning sports-related SCE cases reported to our laboratory or collaborating sports federations
Any personal information reported to us will be handled with strict confidentiality. Information regarding the sports-related SCE will only be used after written informed consent has been obtained from the victim or her family. This project has been approved by the National Ethics Committee for Research and the database has been declared to the National Data Protection Commission.
If you have witnessed or experienced a SCE during or immediately after a sport activity, we kindly ask you to complete this short questionnaire in order to contribute to the Luxembourg database.
https://cardiac-event-sport.lu/
