Huntington, NY - Although the school year has ended, thousands of student athletes across Long Island have already signed up to play sports in the fall. Huntington Hospital electrophysiologist Kent Stephenson, MD, recently found that Suffolk County lags behind the rest of the nation in adequately screening student athletes for undiagnosed heart conditions. Dr. Stephenson is calling for more stringent screening of student athletes in order to identify those at risk for lethal conditions like those that led to the deaths of three youngsters on Long Island over the past year.

The first sign of a serious cardiac problem can be a life-threatening event usually caused by one of two main heart abnormalities: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and Long QT syndrome. Both have a tendency to be inherited, making family history a critical part of the pre-participation screening questionnaire.

In 1995, The American Heart Association recommended that school districts screen athletes with a questionnaire that includes 12 specific questions designed to uncover those children at risk for cardiac problems. A previous nationwide study showed that 80 percent of states screen student athletes by asking nine or more of the 12 recommended questions. Dr. Stephenson recently conducted his own study of Suffolk County’s 59 public schools and found that only 16.4 percent use nine or more of the AHA’s 12 questions.

Alarmed by this finding, he recently met with the Superintendents of all Suffolk County schools to share his concerns and discuss the importance of uniform screening questionnaires.

“We have an opportunity to reach out to local schools and try to create uniform screening strategies. My goal is to encourage school districts to adopt the AHA-recommended screening guidelines,” Dr. Stephenson said. “If one life can be saved, this whole venture will be worthwhile.”

Contacts:
Theresa Jacobellis, Director, Public Affairs
631-470-5207
thjacobellis@hunthosp.org

Jesse Steinberg
631-470-5202
jsteinberg@hunthosp.org