A new Italian-based study showing that screening young athletes for hidden heart problems can help to drastically reduce sudden death is fueling calls for similar measures in Canada.

The population-based study, to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looks at trends in sudden cardiovascular death in athletic and non-athletic young people in the Veneto region of Italy between 1979 and 2004.

The findings, based on tests of more than 40,000 Italians, show that a screening program drastically cuts the number of sudden deaths among young athletes.

In Italy, a nationwide systematic program was introduced in 1982 to prescreen athletes before they participated in sports.

Every athlete aged 12 to 35 is screened for potentially deadly heart problems that could lead to sudden death.

"The major effort is to identify these people and then to disqualify them from sport activity," said Dr. Gaetano Thiene, of the Centre for Sports Medicine in Padua, Italy.

Researchers found that sudden deaths among young athletes dropped by 89 per cent in the years after the screening program.

"This was absolutely amazing because this was proving that pre-participation screening is a life-saving tool," said Thiene.

Researcher Greg Wells, from Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, is part of a group recommending that a similar program be implemented in Canada.

"The key message to take away from this study is that we can screen our athletes for cardiac problems and Canada should be moving down this road as quickly as possible," he said.

Currently, only professional athletes or those headed for the Olympics are checked for underlying heart abnormalities.

Until more rigorous precautions are implemented, doctors say athletes and their families should be on the look out for symptoms.

"If they (athletes) get light-headed or faint or excessive shortness of breath or if they get chest pain, they should be assessed by a family physician to determine whether or not they should continue participating in sports," said University of Toronto's Dr. Ian Cohen.

With a report from CTV's Avis Favaro