Professor Sanjay Sharma – CRY Consultant Cardiologist

I have been involved with CRY since 1996 and our research has led to many “firsts” in the scientific literature.

•  The research funded by cardiac risk in the young was largely responsible for the development of the international recommendations for ECG interpretation in athletes, which is used globally. 
• Our nationwide screening program for individuals aged 14 to 35, as shown that one in 300 apparently healthy individuals has a serious, cardiac fault. A diagnosis leads to intervention with life-saving therapy in 40% of cases.
• Working with families of victims of sudden death, our research has shown that the brugada syndrome is the most common cause of sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS) in the UK.
• Investigation of family members of victims of idiopathic left ventricular hypertrophy, our findings suggest that this entity is separate from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and requires more comprehensive assessment to exclude ion channel disease.
• CRY were the first to provide information on the physiological upper limits of cardiac dimensions in adult National British athletes (Published in European Journal of Applied Physiology).
• CRY were the first organisation ever to characterise cardiac dimensions in a large cohort of adolescent athletes, who are most vulnerable to sudden death during sport from cardiomyopathy. Landmark studies in the Journal of American College of Cardiology and Heart are the main international studies on this subject.
• CRY wrote the first paper on ECG changes in adolescent athletes (1000 athletes studied) which was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine and is a blueprint for the European Society of Sports Cardiology.
• CRY have performed the only study on cardiovascular adaptation in athletes of West African origin. The results show that ECGs in black athletes are quite different to those in white athletes and could be mistaken for serious cardiac disorder.
• CRY are the first organisation to state the prevalence and significance of an isolated long QT interval in elite athletes. This study has called for revision of consensus guidelines published by the American College of Cardiology.
• CRY is the first to describe the prevalence of HCM in elite athletes.