Seattle Children’s Sports Cardiology Clinic
Contact Seattle Children’s Sports Cardiology
The only comprehensive pediatric program on the West Coast dedicated to cardiovascular care for young athletes
Intense exercise can cause your child’s heart to adapt and develop changes, which may be mistaken for more serious heart conditions and result in them being taken out of the game. If this happens, your child deserves to be seen, evaluated, diagnosed and managed by the best.
Seattle Children’s Sports Cardiology Clinic evaluates, diagnoses and manages the care of young athletes who have known or suspected heart disease. We offer quick and easy access to an expert return-to-play evaluation. Your child gets quick access to specialists, and you do not need a referral to make an appointment.
Our number one goal is to get your child safely back in the game as quickly as possible.
What is sports cardiology?
Seattle Children’s Sports Cardiology Clinic is part of Seattle Children’s Heart Center, the most comprehensive pediatric heart care service in the Northwest. The Sports Cardiology Clinic provides care for athletes who have concerning heart symptoms, as well as active children and teens who:
- Are considered high risk for developing heart conditions and/or
- Have a family history of cardiovascular disease
We also offer these services for competitive athletes seeking:
- Advanced preparticipation screenings
- Complex “return-to-play” evaluations after a heart event like
- Evaluation of potential causes of decreased performance
Our heart experts specialize in evaluating, diagnosing and managing the heart problems of young athletes by providing:
- Preparticipation screenings: We will assess athletes before they start a new sport before they return from an injury to ensure their heart health is optimal for intense physical activity.
- Exercise-induced cardiac symptoms: We will evaluate chest pain, shortness of breath or that occur during or after exercise.
- Evaluation and management of heart conditions in athletes: We will diagnose and manage conditions like , and myocarditis that may affect athletic performance and safety.
- Performance optimization: We will offer guidance on how to train effectively while maintaining heart health.
The Athletes We Help
Athletes are defined as “individuals who are exposed to regular and high cardiovascular stress due to habitual vigorous exercise training for the purposes of obtaining a high level of fitness for competition, occupation, or recreation.” This can include participants in things like football, swimming, dance, soccer and cheerleading.
Our clinic is designed to better support in-season young athletes who find themselves needing heart care and clearance before they are allowed to participate in or return to their sport of choice. Although symptoms may be the same, this clinic is not intended for patients who may experience heart issues outside of vigorous athletic training (i.e., playground games, PE class).
If your patient/child is having a medical emergency with suspected cardiac issues, please call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.
Why choose Seattle Children’s Sports Cardiology Clinic?
Strenuous training can prompt a young athlete’s heart to change in ways that look like (mimic) serious conditions. If that happens, our sports heart experts will assess, diagnose and care for your child by offering the following services:
- Multidisciplinary approach. Our heart experts work with a wide range of pediatric experts, including electrophysiologists, exercise physiologists, , cardiovascular surgeons, nutritionists, and geneticists to provide the most comprehensive and personalized care.
- Nationally recognized sports cardiologist. Our medical director, Dr. Jack Salerno, is a nationally known sports cardiologist who has written several national guidelines on return to sports, authored numerous papers and works locally with the Washington Interscholastic Athletics Association (WIAA).
- Easy access. Direct, online booking provides ease of access without needing a referral and ensures your family can connect with heart providers when you need them.
- Proactive performance partnership. We emphasize safe participation rather than automatically saying “no.” We want you to feel less anxiety about abnormal screening results by knowing that our specialized interpretation reduces the high false-positive rates that often lead to unnecessarily being taken out of the game or practice.
- Faster diagnosis so your child can return to play. We aim to safely assess your child so they can return to play as soon as possible. Our streamlined model of expert evaluation promotes safe and effective play and minimizes the time your child spends sitting out of games and practices for medical reasons.
- Full spectrum of heart care. Our heart experts provide timely access to all Heart Center services. We will work closely with you and your child’s primary care provider to create a treatment plan that is right for your child.
- Shared decision-making. We believe your child should help decide when to return to play. That means reviewing the risks together and understanding your athlete’s wishes before making a decision. Research increasingly supports athletic participation for patients with cardiovascular disease. Some cardiologists without much experience treating athletes choose to restrict them, since that feels like the “safest” legal choice, but this approach ignores the patient’s own voice and values.
Services and Treatments
We provide a wide array of services and treatments that consider your child’s unique situation. Services include:
- Comprehensive individual and sport-specific cardiovascular evaluation.
- Blood tests.
- interpretation and clearance turnarounds so your child can return to play as soon as possible.
- Advanced imaging techniques which may be done with an ECG and to ensure accurate diagnosis and treatment plans.
- Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) to measure oxygen use during exercise on a treadmill, bicycle or other device. CPET provides information on a patient’s highest (maximal) heart rate, the amount of oxygen used (peak VO2) and the point where muscles start working without enough oxygen (anaerobic threshold).
- Other cardiovascular testing as needed, such as cardiac scan to look at the coronary arteries and cardiac to look at the heart muscle and scarring.
- Genetic heart disease testing.
- Sports nutrition consultation focusing on diet and hydration during exercise.
- Referrals to other specialists as needed.
Services and Treatments
We provide a wide array of services and treatments that consider your child’s unique situation. Services include:
- Comprehensive individual and sport-specific cardiovascular evaluation.
- Blood tests.
- Expedited electrocardiogram () interpretation and clearance turnarounds so your child can return to play as soon as possible.
- Advanced imaging techniques which may be done with an ECG and to ensure accurate diagnosis and treatment plans.
- Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) to measure oxygen use during exercise on a treadmill, bicycle or other device. CPET provides information on a patient’s highest (maximal) heart rate, the amount of oxygen used (peak VO2) and the point where muscles start working without enough oxygen (anaerobic threshold).
- Other cardiovascular testing as needed, such as cardiac scan to look at the coronary arteries and cardiac to look at the heart muscle and scarring.
- Genetic heart disease testing.
- Sports nutrition consultation focusing on diet and hydration during exercise.
- Referrals to other specialists as needed.
Nationally Recognized Expertise
Jack Salerno, MD, FACC, FHRS, is the medical director of Seattle Children’s Sports Cardiology Clinic and a nationally recognized expert in sports cardiology and heart rhythm disorders, with a particular focus on preventing sudden cardiac arrest in athletes. He has published more than 30 papers in the field and contributed to major policy statements from the American College of Cardiology, the Heart Rhythm Society, the American Heart Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Many of these guidelines address preventing sudden cardiac arrest, creating emergency action plans and using shared decision-making to help athletes with cardiovascular disease safely return to sport. He also served on the writing group for the International Criteria for ECG Interpretation in Athletes, which is the gold standard for screening asymptomatic athletes for heart disease.
Salerno serves on the medical board of the Nick of Time Foundation, which offers free sports screenings for underserved athletes, and on the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Sports Advisory Committee, where he advocates for the health and safety of high school athletes.
Locations
Contact us
Contact the Sports Cardiology Clinic at 206-987-2515 for an appointment, a second opinion or more information.