Guidance for ‘safe exercise’ in the COVID era and how to prepare for a return to sport Consultant Cardiologist Professor Sanjay Sharma. Professor Sharma’s presentation, entitled “Exercise in the COVID-19 era: Facts and Fiction,” looked at the effects of COVID-19 on the heart, the effects of exercise on the susceptibility to infection, the effects and consequences of myocarditis in athletes, and much more.
As in-person meetings and physical conferences were not an option, to continue to share research and the expertise of CRY’s doctors during 2020, we held webinars for the first time. Like our virtual CRY Conference, these gave people a chance to hear from experts and ask questions. On June 15, we held our first webinar, covering how athletes can continue exercising safely during the COVID-19 pandemic and how to prepare for a return to sport. This webinar featured three talks, beginning with CRY
Next, Professor Mat Wilson, the head of sport and exercise medicine at the Institute for Sport Exercise and Health, gave his presentation “Going back to exercise; A roadmap to retraining.” Professor Wilson provided his insight on how to understand the contextual factors – ranging from potentially being infected by COVID-19, to athletes recovering from old or new injuries – that need to be considered for athletes when returning to competitive sport following quarantine to do so as safely as possible. Dr Michael Papadakis gave the final presentation, “Cardiac evaluation prior to return to sport. One size fits all?” Dr Papadakis looked at who should receive cardiac evaluation and how, and the impact that COVID can have on the heart. To bring the webinar to a close, all of the speakers answered questions submitted by those watching live.
The importance of CRY’s research sudden cardiac death, identifying the prevalence of serious cardiac diseases in the young population, and refining cost effective methods for identifying and treating young people with cardiac conditions. Professor Sharma began by looking at a CRY research paper published in 2009, entitled “The magnitude of sudden cardiac death in the young: a death certificate-based review in England and Wales” (Papadakis M, Sharma S, Cox S, Sheppard MN, et al. Europace, 2009). This study examined sudden cardiac deaths in England and Wales and helped further CRY’s early efforts to identify the incidence of YSCD. As CRY Chief Executive Dr Steven Cox said when introducing this presentation and Q&A session, “internationally, CRY is known as a charity which has led the way in funding research into young sudden cardiac death.” Professor Sanjay Sharma has been leading CRY’s research programme over the past 25 years, helping develop research that has transformed our understanding of the causes and prevention of young sudden cardiac death (YSCD), and the treatment of those at risk. To look at some of the developments of CRY’s research and its importance, Professor Sharma hosted a live 15-minute presentation. This covered several key areas, including how CRY’s research has shed light on the incidence of YSCD, the causes of sudden cardiac death, the interpretation of autopsy findings, the evaluation of first degree relatives of victims of
Cardiac Risk in the Young
From there, Professor Sharma looked at more studies which examined unexplained deaths in young people, and research that shows how often underlying conditions can be genetic. He added further insight on how CRY research developed our ability to detect conditions through new refined, internationally recommended ECG guidelines; protocols on how to investigate families that have suffered a sudden cardiac death, which are now used nationally to test affected families; and ultimately how vital it is to identify cardiac conditions early with the ECG, which is where CRY’s screening programme is leading the way in screening tens of thousands of young people every year and saving lives. To finish, Professor Sharma answered questions from CRY supporters. Research Highlights 2020
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