TORONTO, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Using safety baseballs and chest protectors for young baseball players could help prevent Sudden Death Syndrome, a U.S. researcher says.
Dr. Mark S. Link of Tufts University addressed the topic, Athletes and Sudden Death Syndrome -- an often fatal syndrome occurring in young athletes, with many causes including congenital anomalies, exercise-induced asthma and respiratory arrest, heat stroke and trauma -- at the12th annual scientific meeting of the Heart Failure Society of America in Toronto.
"While optimal screening measures have not yet been determined, research shows crucial measures to prevent death and injury do exist," Link said in a statement. "For example, safety baseballs, which feel like standard balls but reduce the force of an impact would serve to reduce the incidence of sudden death with ball impact."
Link said baseball is the sport most likely to cause an arrhythmia which can occur when a baseball is delivered at a certain velocity and hits an individual's chest at a precise moment during the cardiac cycle, causing an arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death.
Link added that a third preventative step would be to change the rules in certain sports. For example, a young college-aged male lacrosse player died while attempting to block a ball with his chest.
