World Soccer Cup as a Trigger of Cardiovascular Events

Abstract

World Cup soccer games and, specially, Brazil's matches have an impact on the incidence of myocardial infarction, but not on in-hospital mortality.

Clinical neurocardiology defining the value of neuroscience‐based cardiovascular therapeutics

“…, ; Borges et al . ). While such occurrences have been sometimes characterized as ‘precipitating events’ resulting in earlier unmasking of chronic pathology (Schwenk, ), emotional stress can also trigger ventricular dysfunction in healthy individuals, through a mechanism ascribed to exaggerated sympathetic stimulation (so called ‘takotsubo cardiomyopathy’) (Wittstein et al .…”

Sports Events and Acute Coronary Syndrome: Possible Confounding Factors and Bias

“…The relationship between sports events and ACS (Acute Coronary Syndrome) has been the subject of some studies in the literature, with controversial results, and was recently addressed by Borges et al 1 in the manuscript entitled "World Soccer Cup as a Trigger of Cardiovascular Events," published in volume 6 of 2013 of ABC. The authors observed a higher incidence of AMI (Acute Myocardial Infarction) in match days of the FIFA World Cup and, in particular, on Brazilian games, concluding that this sporting event can act as a "trigger" of AMI in Brazilians.…”

“…Firstly, the literature describes that, during sporting events, viewers tend to have numerous risk behaviors for cardiovascular disease, such as the intake of large amounts of alcohol, consumption of fatty food, and use illicit drugs and smoking 2,3 . These factors have also been described as possible triggers for ACS 4,5 , making the association between FIFA World Cup and ACS established in the research of Borges et al 1 subject to a number of confounding factors and hindering the interpretation of results. Defining, as the authors intend, if the World Cup could be seen as a direct "trigger" for ACS is not possible or merely if it entails a number of risk conditions already well described in the literature.…”

“…Furthermore, the use of research findings by observing groups of people to infer causal relationships in individuals may result in ecological fallacy 5 , since it is not possible to state that all individuals who attended the event were exposed the same way. Therefore, the study design presented by Borges et al 1 does not allow the establishment of a direct association between the occurrence of ACS and the FIFA World Cup, and the interpretation of the study results should be performed carefully, taking into account the potential confounding factors and bias of ecological study.…”

“…We would like to thank our colleagues who sent this letter, which has allowed further discussion on this quite intricate subject 1 . Firstly, we agree to the assertions that, over sport events, viewers tend to have a number of risk behaviors for cardiovascular diseases, such as the intake of great amounts of alcoholic beverages, eating of fatty food, use of illicit drugs and smoking, given that the limitations of our research have been addressed in our discussion.…”