Pre-participation sports screening

Abstract

This paper describes the most important goals of a pre-participation sports screening, factors for individual adjustment of examination and important factors that enable each person to safely engage in physical activities. In relation to age, special attention, in terms of additional diagnostic procedures, is paid to prepubertal, pubertal age and to older people. Disturbances in menstrual cycle often occur in active women athletes and require early assessment of nutritional and hormonal status. In assessing the state of the cardiovascular system, it is especially important to assess the risk of sudden cardiac death. According to Maron study (Maron et al, 1996), causes of sudden cardiac death are hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, anomalous origin of the left coronary artery, atherosclerosis and aortic rupture. Physical examination of the cardiovascular system involves a good knowledge of the subtle changes of electrocardiographic and echocardiographic parameters, with particular attention that should be focused on electrocardiographic changes that change with age and the changes that are under the influence of training load, especially in terms of disruption of redox balance and nutritional status. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR