Every year, students die from sudden cardiac arrest due to abnormal heart structure or abnormal rhythms. To help detect young people who are at risk for sudden cardiac arrest, Beaumont offers free student heart checks that include:
- Medical history evaluation
- Blood pressure check
- Physical examination
- Electrocardiogram, or ECG
- Echocardiogram, quick look
This type of student heart check is generally not included in the routine physical required before participating in school sports. The Beaumont Healthy Heart Check Student Heart Screening is designed for students ages 13 to 18. Younger children are not
typically screened because structural abnormalities including abnormal heart muscle thickening, which is the most common cause of sudden death in the U.S., do not become apparent until later in adolescence.
Here are some statistics on the Student Healthy Heart Check program since it began in May 2007:
- 20,991 screenings completed
- 2,176 needed some sort of follow up with a doctor
- 231 were advised to stop sports until they follow up with a cardiologist (many from conditions such as Long QT, Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) and other congenital heart conditions)
- 9 have been identified and then later confirmed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
- 10,566 taught hands only CPR and AED awareness