Rare conditions can lead to sudden death in athletes

Dayton Flyers center Steve McElvene’s cause of death is still under investigation, but there were no signs of foul play, leading to speculation he was among a growing number of young athletes who have died suddenly of cardiovascular disease.

There are several rare conditions that can lead to sudden death in young adults, including Marfan syndrome, which tends to affect people who are unusually tall. McElvene was 6-foot-11.

But studies have shown having an enlarged heart is the leading cause of sudden death among young athletes, and 20-year-old McElvene may be the latest Dayton-area athlete to join the tragic fraternity of those who have died before their 30th birthday as a result of the genetic disorder that can lead to sudden heart rhythm disturbances.

Atlanta Hawks center and former Springfield Catholic Central star, Jason Collier, died suddenly at the age of 28 on Oct. 15, 2005 as the result of an enlarged heart. And Jason Bitsko, a Huber Heights native and former football player at Kent State University, died on August 20, 2014 from the same condition at 21.

Bitsko’s death led his mother, Pamela Bitsko, a teacher at Valley Forge Elementary School in Huber Heights, to become an advocate for cardiac screening of athletes at the NCAA and even high school level.

“The necessity of kids being screened for heart conditions is so important because often, as in my son’s case, there are no symptoms,” she said. “He had had football practice that very day, came home and was his regular self with his roommates. But he went to sleep that night, and he didn’t wake up.

“I’m doing what I can to raise awareness because I believe if the NCAA…would have recommended that athletes be screened this heart condition would have been found in my son,” said the still-grieving mother, who works with Columbus-based mCore to provide mobile screenings for heart abnormalities at schools.

But testing is no panacea, according to Brian Schwartz, medical director of cardiac services for Kettering Health Network, who said hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is difficult to detect because many athletes have normally enlarged hearts as a result of their training.

“The problem with (testing for) hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in an athlete is that it can look identical to the normal athletic heart,” Schwartz said.

In addition, he said, screenings with echocardiograms and EKGs can yield false negatives indicating hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and other heart conditions in actually healthy hearts: “Then you run into the problem of perhaps stopping a lot of healthy athletes from performing because there’s a question on their EKG. So it becomes a very difficult conundrum.”

Still, some experts believe that if more young athletes were screened early a number of sudden deaths could be prevented.

“Just a normal history and physical exam is the best way to prevent one of these,” said Dr. Eric Nordin with the Shiloh Family Medicine practice in Harrison Twp. and former assistant to the University of Dayton’s sports team physician from 1995-2002. “If something is abnormal in the history or exam, then you go further and get more testing like an ecocardiogram.”

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