Abstract
One of the important purposes of preparticipation examination in athletes is prevention of sudden cardiac death. In the last decade there has been emerging debate on the role of resting electrocardiogram as part of preparticipation examination in competitive athletes, on the additive effect if added to history and physical examination and on the benefit-to-cost ratio.
Universal answer to these questions is still missing and probably cannot be found due to different prevalence of causes of sudden death in different populations and due to other factors. Absolute risk of sudden cardiac death in school aged children is low, there are no recommendations for evaluation of resting ECG in this population and the disease often lacks full phenotype and can hardly be diagnosed.
It may be more effective to focus on ECG signs that are suspicious of pathology regardless of sports activity in this age group. On the other hand there are proposals of recommendations for evaluation of resting ECG in adolescent and young adult athletes.