Professional Documents
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Date of Birth:_______________________________
Guardian Email:_____________________________
Make an appointment and be sure to bring: 1) this completed form, 2) the completed consent form
and, 3) $50 or evidence of insurance coverage to your appointment.
Heart of the Valley Pediatric Cardiology
5933 Coronado Lane, Suite 1 F, Pleasanton, CA 94588
Phone 925 416-0100 Fax 925 397-2193 email: amaxwell@heartofthevalley.us
This test is a screen for the underlying causes of sudden cardiac death in athletes. Please see the
accompanying tri-fold brochure for background and additional details of the screen. Screening of
athletes for causes of sudden cardiac death is routine if not mandatory in most European countries. It is
mostly unavailable and completely voluntary in the US. The screening offered by this practice is adapted
from the program that is used in Italy with great success. Please read the following important points
about the screening program.
1) The screen consists of the screening questionnaire and an ECG. The success of the screen depends on the
accuracy and completeness of the questionnaire and of follow-up answers to questions asked by the screening doctor.
This accuracy and completeness is the responsibility of the athlete and the parent.
2) This test is to screen for the causes of SCD. It does not take the place of a sports physical or routine physical.
3) As all screening tools, even under the best circumstances it is not perfect and it does not catch all causes. In
Italy, the screening program was able to reduce the incidence of sudden cardiac death to 1/6th of the rate without
screening. This means, in a typical population of 100,000 screened athletes, each year one athlete who passed the screen
would still be expected to die suddenly. However, this is an improvement compared to no screening where 6 athletes
would be expected to die suddenly each year.
4) Just as a screening tool does not catch all causes, sometimes it detects issues that appear to be of concern, but,
with further testing, are shown not to be of concern (These are called false positive screens). Thus, sometimes additional
costs are incurred for what ultimately turns out to be nothing serious. In Italy, 9% of athletes required additional studies,
usually an echocardiogram, before risk could be better assessed.
5) Insurance companies do not currently cover the cost of screening. They will cover the cost most of the time if
there are any positive responses on the screening questionnaire or the screening ECG and your doctor believes it is
important to have this further evaluated by a pediatric cardiologist.
6) It is very important to understand that, once a person is identified to be at increased risk of sudden cardiac
death, the risk can only be reduced by some sort of intervention. Often this involves restriction from competitive sports.
In Italy, 2% of all those screened were restricted from sports even though it is estimated that only 1 in 10 of those
restricted athletes had a truly high risk of sudden cardiac death. Thus, you may be advised to consider restriction
unnecessarily (You may be a false positive even after additional testing). All effort will be taken to minimize false
positives through additional testing performed by the pediatric cardiologist.
7) Because this is a voluntary screen, agreeing to an intervention or restriction from competition is also a
voluntary decision on the part of the athlete and parents in consultation with their doctor. The screening doctor will not
act to enforce restrictions and will not notify the school of the results directly. However, the doctors of this community
have requested that the screening doctor inform them of any abnormal results Furthermore, if the athlete or parent
discuss the results with their doctor or pediatric cardiologist, that doctor may choose to withhold sports clearance either
with the available results or until further testing is performed. Please include the name of your doctor below. If you have
no doctor, then the athlete and family are entirely responsible for acting on the results.
8) Notification of these results is via email only. The ECG and interpretation of risk is sent via a password
protected PDF file. Be sure to put the email address to which you wish the results sent on the questionnaire.
9) The cost of this screen is $50.
I am the legal guardian of this athlete, I have read the above important information about this test, I agree
to this athlete being tested, and the results to be forwarded to his doctor.
______________________________ ______________________________
Guardian Name Primary Care Doctor Name
Heart of the Valley Pediatric Cardiology
5933 Coronado Lane, Suite 1 F, Pleasanton, CA 94588
Phone 925 416-0100 Fax 925 397-2193 email: amaxwell@heartofthevalley.us