Foreword

There is general agreement that sudden death occurs in young competitive athletes. More than half of these deaths are due to cardiovascular disease. In Italy, including a 12-lead electrocardiogram in the screening has had spectacular success and reduced sudden death by about 90%. In the USA, for a variety of reasons, including electrocardiogram in the screening process has been debated and is controversial.

Dr Froelicher and his colleagues present an extensive and thorough review of the data. It has 128 references. The Associate Editors and I are grateful to Dr Froelicher and his colleagues for this scholarly and excellent article.