Mats Borjesson, Mikael Dellborg, Josef Niebauer, Andre LaGerche, Christian Schmied, Erik E. Solberg, Martin Halle, Emilio Adami,  Alessandro Biffi, Francois Carré, Stefano Caselli, Michael Papadakis, Axel Pressler, Hanne Rasmusen, Luis Serratosa, Sanjay Sharma, Frank van Buuren, and Antonio Pelliccia

ABSTRACT: This article presents an update of earlier recommendations from the Sports Cardiology section of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC) on sports-participation in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), coronary artery anomalies (CAAs), or spontaneous dissection of the coronary arteries (SCAD), all entities being associated with myocardial ischaemia. Myocardial bridging (MB) is also a potential cause of myocardial ischaemia and will be discussed.

Since the focus of these recommendations does not lie on the routine work-up of CAD patients in general, but on patients who wish to engage in leisure-time or competitive sports, these patients will be referred to as athletes-patients. While we acknowledge that competition offers an additional level of stress, adherence to training in different sports may convey a very-high intensity exercise schedule, and represents a major challenge. Cardiovascular pre-participation screening in athletes to detect CAD lies outside the scope of this article and is discussed elsewhere.

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