Accident & Injury Law in Texas

Posts Tagged ‘heart’

Athletes, band members, cheerleaders and other students ages 14 to 18 who take part in strenuous sports can get a free heart screening Saturday at Heart Hospital of Austin, 3801 N. Lamar Blvd.

The screening, from 8 a.m. to noon, is sponsored by the hospital and Championship Hearts, a charity created by Austin Heart, the doctors’ group that founded the hospital.

Students will receive an echocardiogram, or ultrasound of the heart, and an electrocardiogram, or EKG, to detect hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart muscle and a leading cause of sudden death among athletes.  The tests also will detect ether conditions, including abnormal heart rhythms.

Volunteer cardiologists from Austin Heart, Children’s Cardiology Associates of Austin and Heart & Vascular of Central Texas will be on hand.

Although there is no charge, a $15 donation is suggested. Registration will be in the hospital lobby. For more information, call 340-7313.

Children should be screened for heart problems with an electrocardiogram before taking drugs such as Ritalin to treat hyperactivity and attention-defecit disorder according to the American Heart Association.  Children already on the drugs should also be tested.

Stimulants can increase blood pressure and heart rate which for most children isn’t a problem.  But for those with heart conditions, it could make them more vulnerable to sudden cardiac arrest – an erratic heartbeat that causes the organ to stop pumping blood through the body – and other heart problems.

About 2.5 million children and 1.5 million adults in America take some form of medication for attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder, or ADHD, according to government estimates.