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Athletic heart Exercise General Medicine

The NY Times gets it wrong on ECG screening of young athletes

When a news source as powerful as The NY Times publishes an article about sudden cardiac death in young people, one expects accurate information. It’s far too important a topic to write about imprecisely. This piece, entitled Should Young Athletes Be Screened for Heart Risk, included numerous inaccuracies and failed to tell important facts about […]

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Athletic heart Cycling Stuff Health Care Reform Knowledge

The feasibility of routine ECG screening of athletes?

Sudden death in a young athlete is surely a tragic event.  Sadly, many of the afflicted had an underlying undiagnosed heart anomaly that might have been detected with a screening ECG. On the surface, the idea seems so simple: just add an ECG to the routine pre-sport’s history and physical exam.  ECGs are painless, non-invasive […]

Categories
AF ablation Atrial fibrillation Dabigatran/Rivaroxaban/Apixaban Health Care

Thoughts on the Apple Watch and Mobile ECG

Last week I wrote a column on theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology on the new Apple Watch ECG and Kardia Band. The Tweet I sent out on Saturday has done well — 74 Retweets (without any robots) is pretty good. The Apple Watch ECG — The good, the challenges, and the really scary. My thoughts on […]

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Athletic heart Cycling Wed Exercise

CW: The ECG of an athlete

It may seem a little formal to say this, but I would like to start by stating my goals for today’s post: Introduce the concept of the athletic heart; Touch upon the notion of sudden death of the athlete; Explain what an ECG really is, and how it may help diagnose heart disease; Review a […]

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Athletic heart Cycling Stuff General Medicine Healthy Living

Screening seemingly healthy young athletes?

An interesting question came from another sub-specialist–via the comments section of my recent post on the practical difficulties of screening young athletes with routine ECGs. “I’m asked week-in and week-out about screening exams and tests for adult athletes. What do YOU recommend for the seemingly healthy 25-45 year old male non-elite athlete who asks about […]

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Athletic heart Healthy Living ICD/Pacemaker

Important lessons from the collapse of NHL player Rich Peverley

Last night my Twitter stream lit up with the news that NHL player Rich Peverley collapsed from a heart arrhythmia. Fortunately, he was successfully treated, and is reported to be in good condition. Here is a link to the best story I could find. It sounds awfully significant. [Dr.] Salazar said of the treatment, “We […]

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AF ablation Atrial fibrillation Cycling Stuff Doctoring Exercise Healthy Living inflammation

Day 2 ESC — AF ablation and more bike commuting

Okay, I’m getting the hang of this. The Monday morning and evening commute in Amsterdam is something special. You talk about focus. It requires laser-like focus. You’ve got bikes, narrow lanes, buses, trams, pedestrians and tourists. Still though, traveling 6k by bike took 15 minutes; a cab from the convention center, more than 30. I […]

Categories
Atrial fibrillation Cycling Stuff Cyclocross Dabigatran/Rivaroxaban/Apixaban Doctoring inflammation Reflection Social Media/Writing/Blogging

Top Ten Posts of 2012

You may find this hard to believe but I really don’t look at my site’s stats much. In fact, just today I discovered that WordPress has a feature that ranks posts by views. I’m not going to give you my Top Ten just by ranking. Rather, I’ll mix in some of my favorites and those […]

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ICD/Pacemaker

Would you know what to do?

At its core, this blog aims to do some good. I don’t like to ask for things. It’s not why I write. Today is an exception. I’m going to ask you to learn about and maybe support an important cause. The topic is sudden cardiac death–our number-one killer. There are a lot of folks working […]

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Athletic heart General Cardiology General Medicine

New Trials and Fibrillations post is up

It’s entitled: More on ECG screening to prevent sudden death in the young: On risk, the Italian experience and notes from the real world. Here’s the lead in… Earlier this week, I wrote about one of my favorite topics in medicine: the ECG. This 12-pronged view of cardiac vectors catapulted my interest in the human […]

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AF ablation Atrial fibrillation General Ablation General Medicine ICD/Pacemaker

2017 European Heart Rhythm Meeting Update

I attended the European Heart Rhythm Association meeting last week in Vienna. Here is an update on the stories I found most interesting–the ones I wrote about on the heart.org | Medscape Cardiology. Brain Lesions after AF ablation:  Electrophysiologists do not talk much about the small brain lesions that appear after procedures in the left […]