Youth ECG Screening

It is estimated that sudden cardiac death occurs in a young, apparently healthy person about once every three days somewhere in the United States.  This is obviously a devastating occurrence.  The best test we have for identifying the conditions which place a young person at risk for cardiac arrest is an ECG.  This is a painless test, taking less than 5 minutes to complete, which records the electrical activity of the heart.  The ECG will identify roughly 90% of the conditions which put someone at risk for cardiac arrest.  Unfortunately, history and physical examination alone will only identify about 15% of those same conditions.