Online Letter to the Editor

Athletic Screening Provides Opportunity to Detect Many Conditions

TO THE EDITOR: Cardiovascular screening is not the only component of a preparticipation athletic screening. During such physical examinations in the past, I discovered a complete heart block in a husky 12-year-old boy, a heart murmur in a 15-year-old cross-country skier who turned out to have a patent ductus, and a venous hum showing anomalous return of a pulmonary artery with atrial septal defect in a 12-year-old student athlete. These patients needed treatment with a pacemaker, coil occlusion, and intracardiac surgery, respectively. These conditions would have surfaced at a later time, but the preparticipation physical examination was an opportunity to make a difference.

It is important during this examination that physicians look at other problems such as the inflexible athlete, the thrower with an unstable shoulder, the preteen with scoliosis, the high school student with an eating disorder, high-risk behaviors and poor self-image. It is becoming increasingly clear that we should also screen for assets.

By doing so, the preparticipation physical examination becomes an opportunity to set the stage for healthy choices with regard to physical, emotional, and spiritual health. It is a wonderful opportunity to practice preventive medicine, and it is hard to estimate the cost savings.

MARK W. Boyce, M.D.
St. Mary’s/Duluth Clinic Health System
400 East Third St.
Duluth, MN 55805

Send letters to Jay Siwek, M.D., Editor, American Family Physician, 11400 Tomahawk Creek Pkwy., Leawood, KS 66211-2672; fax: 913-906-6080; e-mail: afplet@aafp.org. Please include your complete address, telephone number, and fax number. Letters should be submitted on disk, double-spaced, fewer than 500 words, and limited to one table or figure and six references. Please submit a word count. Letters submitted for publication in AFP must not be submitted to any other publication. Possible conflicts of interest must be disclosed at time of submission. Submission of a letter will be construed as granting the AAFP permission to publish the letter in any of its publications in any form. The editors may edit letters to meet style and space requirements.