Bronny James, eldest son of NBA star LeBron James, suffered a cardiac arrest while training with the University of Southern California (USC) basketball team and was hospitalized on Monday (24). Bronny, 18, is out of the intensive care unit and is in a stable condition, according to the statement released by the James family on Tuesday.
Bronny James’ painting raised a recurring question when incidents like this happen: do heart diseases also affect young people?
Although no details about the case have been released, there are different reports in the medical literature of heart-related problems in children, adolescents and young people. There is, for example, an estimate that 3% to 5% of people of pediatric age have hypertension and 10% to 15% have high blood pressure.
What is a cardiac arrest?
Cardiac arrest occurs when the heart stops beating or pumps ineffectively, resulting in the interruption of blood flow to the body and, consequently, a lack of oxygen to the organs and tissues. Without enough oxygen, the brain and other vital organs can be irreversibly damaged after just a few minutes.
There are different possible reasons for a cardiac arrest, and myocardial infarction (popularly known as ‘heart attack’) can be one of them. Cardiac arrhythmias, traumas or even substance abuse can also figure among the explanations of a cardiac arrest.
heart attack x arrhythmia
Last year, when 16-year-old Miss Ingrid Silva died of a heart attack, cardiologist Sérgio Rassi, member of the Deliberative Council and former President of the Brazilian Society of Cardiac Arrhythmias (Sobrac), explained to g1 that it is common for heart attacks to be confused with cardiac arrhythmias, which can have several causes, almost all of which are genetic predispositions.
“A heart attack in teenagers is extremely rare, unless there is some congenital anomaly. When there is a sudden death, a heart attack is assumed because, in adulthood, the most common cause is a heart attack. However, not in young people. The main cause of sudden death in young people is cardiac arrhythmia, which is confused with a heart attack”, he explained at the time.
Rassi indicates that the main genetic conditions that can lead to arrhythmia are:
Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome: presence of an abnormal electrical pathway in the heart;
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dyspalsia: when there are fatty tissue cells in place of myocardial cells (tissue of the thickest wall of the heart);
Asymmetric septal hypertrophy: when the heart muscle between the two ventricles is thicker than normal;
Brugada syndrome: when there is an anomaly in one of the segments of the electrocardiogram (called ST);
Long QT syndrome: when there is an abnormal prolongation of another electrocardiogram measurement (called the QT interval);
Primary ventricular fibrillation: congenital electrical disorder in the heart;
Short QT interval (early repolarization): when there is an abnormal shortening of the QT interval (one of the electrocardiogram measurements.
“All these situations can cause ventricular tachycardia that, ultimately, can cause sudden death, being confused with ‘myocardial infarction’ which, as I said, is very rare in this age group”, he added.
Stress spikes or panic attacks
In the interview with g1, the specialist also recalled that there may be a connection between these heart changes and stress peaks or panic attacks, for example. Rassi stated that these situations in which there is a discharge of adrenaline in the blood can be triggers for an arrhythmia, for example. However, only in people who already have a predisposition to the condition.
“The cause of the arrhythmia is an electrical substrate, which is not triggered exclusively by an emotion or stress. They can be triggers: the person already has that problem and the trigger can be emotional or a sudden effort, but not as a cause, ”she clarified.
