Submitted by SCAFoundation on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 3:31pm

February 14, 2008–AUSTIN–As a Valentine’s gift to Texas students, the Texas Education Agency announced today that Championship Hearts Foundation has been awarded a contract to begin screening sixth-graders for heart conditions that can cause sudden cardiac arrest (SCA).

The $1 million Early Cardiovascular Detection Pilot Program, created in 2007 by Senate Bill 7, will target about 12,750 sixth-grade students in public schools across Texas. The Foundation will select schools that are geographically and ethnically diverse to participate in the pilot that will begin this month.

The free screening will be designed to detect signs of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and other cardiovascular conditions that can cause SCA. HCM is the leading cause of SCA in young people.

About 50 students die from SCA each year in Texas, according to Parent Heart Watch. Earlier this school year, undiagnosed heart conditions in two student athletes led to fatalities.

Laura Friend says if her daughter had been tested in 6th grade, she wouldn’t have died from SCA in 2004. She says the $1 million program is “well worth it” if only one child is saved.

“Sudden death due to an undetected heart condition is rare among school children,” Commissioner of Education Robert Scott said. “Yet there have been cases—tragic cases in which students died after some kind of strenuous physical activity. We want to do everything possible to protect our young people, and this screening program is a part of that effort.”

The screenings will include a pre-screening questionnaire, an electrocardiogram (EKG), which tests the electrical activity of the heartbeat, and an echocardiogram, an ultrasound that shows the shape and size of the heart. Many heart conditions in adolescents that can lead to cardiac arrest are undetectable without an electrocardiogram or an echocardiogram.

Licensed technicians will administer the tests and board-certified cardiologists will read and interpret the results. Test results will be provided to the parents of each screened student. Individual test results are confidential and not available to the public. Cumulative findings from the heart screenings will not identify individual students. Results of the data collected will be reported to the Texas Education Agency by June 2009 to determine the feasibility of a large-scale, statewide screening program.

The contract awarded to Championship Hearts Foundation represents a collaboration between the Foundation, Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, Texas Children’s Hospital of Houston, Children’s Cardiology of Austin and other medical professionals.