Volume 32, Nº 4, July and August 2019
DOI: http://www.dx.doi.org/10.5935/2359-4802.20190053
REVIEW ARTICLE
Sudden Cardiac Death in Sports: Why Its Prevalence is So Different by Gender?
Cléa Simone Sabino de Souza Colombo
Nabil Ghorayeb
Thiago Ghorayeb Garcia
Ricardo Contesini Francisco
Dr. Cléa Simone Sabino de Souza Colombo
Abstract
Sports competition can be a trigger to fatal arrhythmias in predisposed individuals, leading to sudden cardiac death. Athletes have 2.8 fold more risk of sudden cardiac death than non-athletes. However, female athletes seem to have some cardiac protection, dying suddenly much less than men during sports. Although the mechanisms for this protection have not been well established until now, hormonal, genetic and molecular factors may play a role in it. The so-called “fair sex” might harbour the key for sudden cardiac death prevention.
Keywords: Exercises; Sports/physiology; Women; Death, Sudden, Cardiac/prevention and control; Death, Sudden, Cardiac/prevalence; Coronary Artery Disease; Arrhythimias, Cardiac; Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic.