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Review
. 2021 Feb 26;57(3):205.
doi: 10.3390/medicina57030205.

Catheter Ablation of Life-Threatening Ventricular Arrhythmias in Athletes

Nicola Tarantino  1 , Domenico G Della Rocca  2 , Nicole S De Leon De La Cruz  3 , Eric D Manheimer  1 , Michele Magnocavallo  4 , Carlo Lavalle  4 , Carola Gianni  2 , Sanghamitra Mohanty  2 , Chintan Trivedi  2 , Amin Al-Ahmad  2 , Rodney P Horton  2 , Mohamed Bassiouny  2 , J David Burkhardt  2 , G Joseph Gallinghouse  2 , Giovanni B Forleo  5 , Luigi Di Biase  1   6 , Andrea Natale  2   7   8
Affiliations
Review

Catheter Ablation of Life-Threatening Ventricular Arrhythmias in Athletes

Nicola Tarantino et al. Medicina (Kaunas). .

Abstract

A recent surveillance analysis indicates that cardiac arrest/death occurs in ≈1:50,000 professional or semi-professional athletes, and the most common cause is attributable to life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias (VAs). It is critically important to diagnose any inherited/acquired cardiac disease, including coronary artery disease, since it frequently represents the arrhythmogenic substrate in a substantial part of the athletes presenting with major VAs. New insights indicate that athletes develop a specific electro-anatomical remodeling, with peculiar anatomic distribution and VAs patterns. However, because of the scarcity of clinical data concerning the natural history of VAs in sports performers, there are no dedicated recommendations for VA ablation. The treatment remains at the mercy of several individual factors, including the type of VA, the athlete's age, and the operator's expertise. With the present review, we aimed to illustrate the prevalence, electrocardiographic (ECG) features, and imaging correlations of the most common VAs in athletes, focusing on etiology, outcomes, and sports eligibility after catheter ablation.

Keywords: athletes; catheter ablation; sports cardiology; ventricular arrhythmia; ventricular tachycardia.

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Conflict of interest statement

Dr. Di Biase is a consultant for Biosense Webster, Boston Scientific, Stereotaxis, and St. Jude Medical, and has received speaker honoraria from Medtronic, Atricure, EPiEP, and Biotronik. Dr. Natale has received speaker honoraria from Boston Scientific, Biosense Webster, St. Jude Medical, Biotronik, and Medtronic, and is a consultant for Biosense Webster, St. Jude Medical, and Janssen. All other authors have reported that they have no relationships relevant to the contents of this paper to disclose.

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