Dušan Meško
Athletes have come to be regarded as a special part of society, owing to their unique lifestyle and percepted as a bearers of health and invulnerability. The possibility that highly trained high-school, or even professional athletes may harbor potentially lethal heart disease or be susceptible to sudden death under a variety of circumstances seems counterintuitive. Sudden cardiac deaths continue to occur, usually in the absence of prior symptoms. They have a considerable emotional and social impact on the lay public and physician community. Attempts to understand the causes of such tragic events have triggered considerable interest in differentiating physiologic athlete‘s heart from structural cardiovascular disease, as well as in developing preparticipation screening strategies and formulating disqualification criteria aimed at preventing sudden death in young athletes.