Medical science ‘lacks knowledge on heart attacks among sports pros’

The trend of healthy young sportsmen and women suffering heart attacks is being exacerbated by a lack of basic understanding of the phenomenon.

Sport and exercise medicine specialist Dr Richard Weiler has explained to the British Journal of Sports Medicine that there are "big gaps" in knowledge about the number and causes of these apparently inexplicable cardiac events.

He noted that investigations of issues such as gender and ethnicity, geography and genetic backgrounds need to be launched, while observing that players of African descent seem to be more susceptible to these incidents.

The expert's comments come in response to the collapse of footballer Fabrice Muamba during an FA Cup match in March 2012, an incident which saw the Bolton Wanderers player's heart stop for more than one hour.

According to Dr Weiler, occurrences such as this necessitate the collection of reliable data whenever they occur across the world, while improvements to the minimum standards of pitch-side medical care across all sports are also necessary.

"It is vital that we start to answer these questions based on reliable science and evidence," he asserted.