Cardiac Screening in Triathlon and endurance swimming
Professor Sanjay Sharma, St Georges Hospital Cardio thoracic dept in London / 05.12.2013
Winter is coming, the temperature is dropping fast, and we all know that we'll be dragging ourselves through some very cold water over the coming months. So it's not quite open-water swimming but the article makes for interesting reading about the dangers of sudden immersion in cold water during racing.
The Article is written by Professor Sanjay Sharma, from St Georges Hospital Cardio thoracic dept in London. Prof Sharma is the medical director for the London triathlon, the Hyde Park ITU triathlon, Ride 100 London sportive and a host of other big events. He added, that there isn't much data on triathletes for undiagnosed heart conditions, and that promoting cardiac screening at St Georges Hospital cardiology dept, would increase his research data and probability for diagnosing such undiagnosed heart conditions.
He has given a presentation to the International Triathlon Union in Geneva this past February on sudden death syndrome in triathlon, and he is particularly interested in the swim discipline. Ironman and the WTC have admirably taken the step of introducing some new regulations to minimise the risk to swimmers and anxiety levels. British triathlon events I believe do not currently run in water temperature below 14 degrees celcius, however WTC say they will only cancel the swim discipline if the water temperature is below 52 degrees fahrenheit, or 11.1 degrees celsius.
The Cardiology dept at St Georges hospital will be conducting free cardiac screenings for triathletes, subject to conditions of course, to increase the probability rates and accuracy of statistics in this field.
More information will be on the Triathlete Europe website in the next few days.
This article summises that:
"We can dispel some common misperceptions: This is not a problem of beginners and is not a problem with swimming ability; The fatality rate has not increased in more recent years. The number of fatalities has paralleled the growth in participation rate in triathlon; The fatality rate is not related to using/not using a wetsuit; The fatality rate is not related to the type of swim start (mass, wave, time-trial). No particular start method appears to be safest; The fatality rate is not related to the length of the race."
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