Conclusion
Our findings suggest that standard ECG is limited in its ability to identify the condition. In our sample, the prevalence of abnormal ECG among participants with HCM detected during screening echocardiography was less than 25%. This suggests that even in the presence of normal ECG findings, there is value in additional workup for HCM via echocardiography and CMR imaging to comprehensively rule out the condition. It is especially important to conduct comprehensive screening among high-level athletes, as these individuals are at increased risk for SCD.
Limitation:
We evaluate volunteers in high schools with a relatively young population. Therefore, our results may not be accurate for the older population. Echocardiographic measurements are body habit dependent and a hand-held echocardiography has limited accuracy in a participant with poor window. Furthermore, other causes of increased left ventricular thickness such as hypertension or infiltrative diseases could be excluded limiting our results.