Background: Athletes` health is an important issue and for promoting it, pre-participation examination (PPE) is widely performed by responsible bodies around the world.. Objectives: This study was to determine prevalence of cardiovascular disorders among athletes participating in the Asian games and answering the question whether the electrocardiogram (ECG) is a necessary part of pre-participation examination (PPE) for prevention of sudden cardiac death.. Materials and Methods: All athletes participated at Asian games came to sports medicine federation for a PPE including a comprehensive questionnaire, physical examination and ECG. In this retrospective study all profiles of 338 athletes have been studied as well as their electrocardiograms. Multiple logistic regressions as well as Firth`s bias reduction were used with R statistical software and SPSS. For predicting the changes in ECG, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve has done.. Results: Among 388 athletes, 80 (20.6%) were female and 308 (79.4%) male with mean age of 23.2 + 8 years. Nine athletes (2.3%) were smokers, 28 of them (7.2%) experienced chest pain and discomfort, 45 of them (13.3%) had palpitations and 28 (7.2%) had history of anemia. Study of their electrocardiograms showed that long Q-T interval was not seen for anyone, but evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy was seen in 12 (3.1%), inverted T wave in 6 (1.5%), and right bundle branch block in 45 (13.3%).. Conclusions: PPE provides very important information of athletes` health. This study has shown that there was not any significant relation between current examination and electrocardiogram changes but regarding the ECG changes we recommend it as a routine part of PPE..
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