Methods
The Anthony Bates Foundation was established in memory of Anthony Bates
who suffered sudden cardiac death. The foundation has been performing
screening echocardiography and ECG in high schools across the United
States in order to prevent sudden death since 2001 by detecting
asymptomatic cardiac abnormalities. The evaluation includes a
questionnaire, physical examination, electrocardiogram, and
echocardiogram performed on-site. Informed consent is obtained from the
participant and participants younger than 18 needed consent from their
parents. The populations studied were volunteers screened for prevention
of sudden death. Although the screening was aimed at young subjects,
everybody willing to participate would be screened. Any suspected
abnormal echocardiographic or significant EKG findings will be
recommended for follow-up with the participant’s physician. Data
analysis was performed using SPSS program. A p-value of less than 0.05
is accepted as statistically significant. Board-certified cardiologists
would interpret the results of EKG and echocardiograms. For our study,
we evaluated the prevalence of abnormal ECG in participants with
suspected HCM defined as any left ventricular wall thickness ≥ 15 mm in
comparison to controls among subjects presenting for screening.