Young people should be offered heart screenings to prevent more deaths ‘which come out of the blue with no symptoms’, study finds
Young people should be offered heart screenings to prevent hundreds of tragedies, experts and campaigners say.
Cambridge University student and keen athlete Clarissa Nicholls, 20, tragically died while hiking in the south of France in 2023 from an undiagnosed heart condition.
She had arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart muscle is replaced by fat and scar tissue – and one of many heart conditions that could be spotted from a simple test, according to experts.
New research funded by the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) has now found that electrocardiograms could identify those at risk of sudden death – and prevent hundreds of deaths in young people every year.
Every week in the UK, 12 people under the age of 35 die from a ‘hidden’ heart condition, often in their sleep and usually completely out of the blue with no prior symptoms.
Now, the largest study of its kind has found that routinely offering heart screenings to young people could prevent hundreds of unnecessary deaths by identifying those at risk and putting them on medication or treatment.
Clarissa’s mother, Hilary Nichols, has spent the years following her daughter’s death campaigning for greater awareness of screening.
She told the Times: ‘In this country, we routinely screen elite athletes, as well as army recruits and pilots.
Clarissa Nicholls (pictured) was a Cambridge University student who suddenly died aged 20 from an undiagnosed heart condition
The charity, Clarissa’s Campaign, was started in her memory and raises money to have annual heart screenings in Cambridge and south east London
Clarissa’s mother, Hilary Nichols, has spent the years following her daughter’s death campaigning for greater awareness of screening
‘So, if screening is a requisite for elite athletes and army recruits, why should the wider population not have access to these privileges? This is about giving young people the ability to make informed choices.’
Research led by a team at City St George’s university in London analysed data from more than 104,000 young people aged 14 to 35, who had their hearts screened in a scheme funded by CRY.
Shockingly, one in 300 were identified with heart conditions that could later have fatal consequences if left unmonitored and untreated.
Four in ten went on to receive significant interventions to ‘save their lives’, including implantable defibrillators, pacemakers, and two people had heart transplants.
The published study is the most comprehensive examination of cardiac screening in the young to date and could make a nationwide screening programme for the young possible.
Currently, only elite athletes in the UK are routinely screened for heart conditions by private sporting bodies, but the rest of the population is not due to popular belief that sprot exacerbates the dangers of hidden heart conditions.
But this study has disproved this common myth – finding no significant difference between the risk of sudden cardiac death between athletes and non-athletes.
Dr Steven Cox, the chief executive of Cry, told the Times: ‘This research has clearly demonstrated it is no longer a question of if screening saves lives, but now about how many lives screening saves and how to prevent more tragedies.’
One in every 250 people is thought to have a genetic heart condition, affecting a total of roughly 260,000 people in the UK.
Clarissa’s Campaign was set up after Clarissa’s death and raises money for ECG Heart Screening days for young adults.
The charity works with CRY, the NHS, and Clarissa’s family to raise money for an annual eight-day screening service in Cambridge and south east London, where Clarissa grew up. One screening day costs around £7,000.
