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Screening for cardiac diseases can be a
complex situation but we are trying to adopt a cost
effective screening programme and this screening
programme comprises of a health questionnaire which
enquires specifically about the cardinal symptoms of
cardiac diseases such as chest pain, breathlessness,
dizziness, palpitations or black outs and also
importantly enquires about family history of cardiac
conditions, because most conditions that cause sudden
death in young people are hereditary - by that I mean
they are genetically transmitted from one person to
another so the family history’s very important.
That is usually followed by a 12 lead
ECG which is an electrical tracing of the heart that is
designed to look for electrical faults of the heart and
to raise suspicion of the cardiomyopathies. So the
whole process doesn’t take long and in many situations,
the individual can be reassured on the spot, a small
number of people, I would say 4%, need further tests.
Of these 4%, 0.2% have a serious problem, about 1% have
a minor problem and the other 2.8% can be reassured.
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