Moderated Poster Session IV: Sport cardiology

Abstract

M280 Cardiovascular events during FIFA Soccer World Cup 2006 D Niederseer, A Egger, J Niebauer Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria Topic: Sports cardiology Objectives: Recently, an increase in the incidence of cardiovascular events in Bavaria during FIFA Soccer World Cup 2006 (WC) has been reported. A significant pooling of cardiovascular events on days the German team played as well as on the day of the final game was shown. However, in this excellent report only a limited number of cardiac diagnoses were analysed. Methods: In order to assess further acute cardiac disorders we requested data for the period of the WC (June 9-July 9, 2006) but also for control periods (May 1-July 31, 2003 and 2005; May 1June 8, 2006 i.e. before WC and July 10-31, 2006 i.e. after WC) from the Bavarian Council for Statistics and Data Management on diagnoses. The following diagnoses were assessed: myocardial infarction (ICD-10; I 21); cardiac arrest (I 46); paroxysmal tachycardia (I 47); atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter (I 48); all remaining tachyarrhythmias (I 49). Results: Despite an increase in cardiac events among Bavarians on the days the German team played, there was no overall increase during the WC or respective control periods (Table 1). Conclusion: Whereas the original analysis by Wilbert-Lampen et al. urges organisers of largescale events to be especially prepared on days on which local teams play, our data somewhat assure us that watching such enjoyable events does not lead to an overall increase in cardiac events beyond that seen during control periods. We rather hypothesise that emotional stress induced by watching soccer pools cardiovascular events to one specific moment i.e. a soccer game, but would have likely occurred anyway within the control period and thus within the very near future.