February 24, 2026

expert reaction to study on cardiac screening in young people using an ECG and diagnosis of heart conditions

A study published in American College of Cardiology (JACC) looks at cardiac screening for heart conditions in children. 

Dr Peter Swoboda, Associate Professor in Cardiology and a Consultant Cardiologist, University of Leeds, said:

“Is this good research: The team at St George’s have done impressive work to collect screening and follow up data in over 100,000 participants. Notably, they have used multiple methods to capture clinical events that occurred during follow up. The rate of sudden cardiac arrest of 5.6 per 100,000 person-years is higher than previous studies (which have typically reported rates of <2 per 100,000 person-years) showing that this is an important area for research. The sensitivity of the screening strategy of 77% is also impressive. Although the strategy involved clinical review by expert cardiologists there is hope that in the future AI-enabled strategies will be able to replicate this high sensitivity without reliance on expert interpretation.

“Limitations: It is possible there is a degree of referral bias in voluntary screening as individuals with a concerning family history or symptoms may be more likely to attend. Rates of disease and cardiac arrest may be lower in unselected populations. 2173 out of 2619 individuals referred for secondary evaluation were subsequently cleared (i.e. 83% false positive rate). The cost of this would need to be factored when considering changes to practice and policy around screening. Future randomised studies are needed to provide definitive evidence that screening can reduce sudden cardiac arrest.”

‘Cardiac Screening for Conditions Associated With Sudden Cardiac Death’ by Hamish MacLachlan et al. was published in American College of Cardiology (JACC) at 15:00 UK time on Tuesday 24 February 2026. 

DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2025.11.049

Declared interests

Dr Peter Swoboda: I have received grant funding from BHF with Professor Sharma (who is an author on this study). Second I have been co-author on a three publications with some of these authors. I was not involved in this research and had not seen any of the results before you sent. I don’t have any financial disclosures.

For all other experts, no reply to our request for DOIs was received.