The Stanford Legacy and the Future of Electrocardiographic Screening of Athletes

Though some controversy remains regarding the place of the 12 lead Electrocardiogram (ECG) in the routine screening of young athletes and how and where the pre-participation examination should be performed, studies continue to support the ECG and properly organized mass screening.  The purpose of this paper is to provide brief historical perspective, the experiences at our institution and our view of the future application of computerized Electrocardiography in screening for cardiovascular risk. The focus is on the process and improvement of Electrocardiographic criteria for estimating the cardiovascular risk of young athletes.