Live chat with Matt Nipper, PeaceHealth
The Columbian held a live Web chat at noon on Friday, Feb. 24, to discuss heart health and the issue of screening teen athletes for heart conditions. We were joined by Matt Nipper, an exercise physiologist at PeaceHealth Heart & Vascular Center.
The loss of two young athletes and the near-death of a third student in Clark County have raised the visibility of sudden cardiac arrest among active teens, and many parents are taking precautionary measures to seek out screening options with the hope of identifying any risk to their own children. But these types of screenings are expensive, and there is controversy in the medical field about whether EKGs or Echocardiograms should be offered to every teenager who is participating in athletic activities.
