TY - JOUR
T1 - The Sports Cardiology Team
T2 - Personalizing Athlete Care Through a Comprehensive, Multidisciplinary Approach
AU - van Hattum, Juliette C
AU - Verwijs, Sjoerd M
AU - Senden, P Jeff
AU - Spies, Jessica L
AU - Boekholdt, Matthijs M.
AU - Groenink, Maarten
AU - Panhuyzen-Goedkoop, Nicole M
AU - Willems, Albert R
AU - Knobbe, Ingmar
AU - Blom, Nicolaas A
AU - Wijne, Cornelis A C M
AU - Reurink, Gustaaf
AU - van der Crabben, Saskia N
AU - Bijsterveld, Nick R
AU - Verhagen, Evert A L M
AU - Pinto, Yigal M
AU - Wilde, Arthur A M
AU - Jorstad, Harald T.
N1 - © 2022 The Authors.
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - OBJECTIVE: To systematically investigate and document the infrastructure, practices, recommendations, and clinical consequences of a structured, organized sports cardiology multidisciplinary team (MDT) for athletes and patients who wish to engage in sports and exercise.PATIENTS AND METHODS: We established bimonthly sports cardiology MDT meetings, with a permanent panel of experts in sports cardiology, genetics, pediatric cardiology, cardiovascular imaging, electrophysiology, and sports and exercise medicine. Cases were referred nationally or internationally by cardiologists/sports physicians. We retrospectively analyzed all MDT cases (April 10, 2019 through May 13, 2020) and collected clinical follow-up data up to 1 year after the initial review.RESULTS: A total of 115 athletes underwent MDT review; of them, 11% were women, 65% were recreational athletes, and 54% were performing "mixed" type of sports; the mean age was 32±16 years. An MDT review led to a diagnosis revision of "suspected cardiac pathology" to "no cardiac pathology" in 38% of the athletes and increased the number of definitive diagnoses (from 77 to 109; P=.03). We observed fewer "total sports restrictions" (from 6 to 0; P=.04) and more tailored sports advice concerning "no peak load/specific maximum load" (from 10 to 26; P=.02). At the 14±6-month follow-up, 112 (97%) athletes reported no cardiovascular events, 111 (97%) athletes reported no (new) cardiac symptoms, 113 (98%) athletes reported adherence to the MDT sports advice, and no diagnoses were revised.CONCLUSION: Our experiences with a comprehensive sports cardiology MDT demonstrate that this approach leads to higher percentages of definitive diagnoses and fewer cardiac pathology diagnoses, more tailored sports advice with excellent rates of adherence, and fewer total sports restrictions. Our findings highlight the added value of sports cardiology MDTs for patient and athlete care.
AB - OBJECTIVE: To systematically investigate and document the infrastructure, practices, recommendations, and clinical consequences of a structured, organized sports cardiology multidisciplinary team (MDT) for athletes and patients who wish to engage in sports and exercise.PATIENTS AND METHODS: We established bimonthly sports cardiology MDT meetings, with a permanent panel of experts in sports cardiology, genetics, pediatric cardiology, cardiovascular imaging, electrophysiology, and sports and exercise medicine. Cases were referred nationally or internationally by cardiologists/sports physicians. We retrospectively analyzed all MDT cases (April 10, 2019 through May 13, 2020) and collected clinical follow-up data up to 1 year after the initial review.RESULTS: A total of 115 athletes underwent MDT review; of them, 11% were women, 65% were recreational athletes, and 54% were performing "mixed" type of sports; the mean age was 32±16 years. An MDT review led to a diagnosis revision of "suspected cardiac pathology" to "no cardiac pathology" in 38% of the athletes and increased the number of definitive diagnoses (from 77 to 109; P=.03). We observed fewer "total sports restrictions" (from 6 to 0; P=.04) and more tailored sports advice concerning "no peak load/specific maximum load" (from 10 to 26; P=.02). At the 14±6-month follow-up, 112 (97%) athletes reported no cardiovascular events, 111 (97%) athletes reported no (new) cardiac symptoms, 113 (98%) athletes reported adherence to the MDT sports advice, and no diagnoses were revised.CONCLUSION: Our experiences with a comprehensive sports cardiology MDT demonstrate that this approach leads to higher percentages of definitive diagnoses and fewer cardiac pathology diagnoses, more tailored sports advice with excellent rates of adherence, and fewer total sports restrictions. Our findings highlight the added value of sports cardiology MDTs for patient and athlete care.
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2022.08.006
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2022.08.006
M3 - Article
C2 - 36267910
SN - 2542-4548
VL - 6
SP - 525
EP - 535
JO - Mayo Clinic proceedings. Innovations, quality & outcomes
JF - Mayo Clinic proceedings. Innovations, quality & outcomes
IS - 6
ER -