Specific Populations: Athletes of Afro-Caribbean Origin

The past three decades has seen a tremendous rise in black athletes competing at every level of sport. Data from pre-participation programmes have informed our knowledge particularly of black (African/Afro-Caribbean) athletes. It is now well-established that as with white counterparts, black athletes reveal a high prevalence of benign, exercise-related ECG changes, particularly ST segment elevation, voltage criteria for left ventricular hypertrophy and early repolarization. Black athletes also exhibit a higher prevalence of T-wave inversion as well as a greater degree of left ventricular hypertrophy on echocardiogram than white athletes. Such findings overlap to greater extent with primary cardiomyopathies and may contribute to the higher incidence of sudden cardiac death observed in this ethnic group compared to white athletes.