Cardiac screening for pediatric athletes should begin by age 12 years.
Cardiac evaluation of paediatric athletes.
Guido E Pieles et al. · European heart journal · 2026
Background
Paediatric athletes are not simply 'mini adults'.
12
Results
years
young athletes should start heart check-ups by this age
More results
Members of the writing group voted anonymously on key advice statements, with ≥80% agreement required for consensus.
Implementing a screening programme requires ensuring the availability of necessary healthcare resources.
More results
One transthoracic echocardiogram may be appropriate to identify high-risk structural cardiac diseases not identifiable on ECG, provided appropriate infrastructure for baseline diagnostic assessments is in place.
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Conclusion
It is also noted that increased opportunities for paediatric sports cardiology training are required to provide adequate medical care for the paediatric athlete population.