Early repolarization - Sport

[SebScoFr]

Hello,

I am a 30 years old healthy male with no structural heart issues but I've been diagnosed with early repolarization (ER).
I do not have a family history of unexplained sudden death.

Basically I am wondering if ER might be induced by sport (I practice 4 times a week at a fitness club)? And is there a risk that the ER aspect might get worse if I keep training like that?

I've also been reading a lot of papers on that subject and it seems that a rapidly ascending ST segment, even on inferior leads suggest a benign form of ER. I would like to know how one is supposed to read an ECG that shows rapidly ascending ST segments on leads II and aVF, but horizontal on lead III?

Thanks in advance. Regards.
Sebastien

[SebScoFr]

Thanks for the reassuring numbers. I'm going to try to stop reading papers about it and just forget about it once and for all now.

[is_something_wrong]

In other words, even if you had the less benign variant (which is rare) - the chance of actually dying from it would be about 10 times lower than the chance of getting murdered. In a safe country. So I really wouldn't worry. I have ER myself and I used to worry. Now I don't anymore.

[is_something_wrong]

Early repolarization is more the rule than the exception in young athletic men. It usually disappears before age 40.

There is a less benign variant, which involves a notched J-point in leads F, II and III. It may triple the risk of cardiac arrest without a cause.

What we need to remember, is that cardiac arrest without a cause is VERY rare. So a tripled risk really doesn't make much difference. The chance increases from about 1 to 30.000 to 1 to 10.000.

[tom_h]

I'm sure that if you've done some reading, that you know how important it is to determine what kind of ER you have.  I would definitely let a cardiologist make that call.