According to researchers, electrocardiograms may help in decreasing sudden cardiac deaths in high school and college athletes. It would also prove to be more cost-effective.

Screening young athletes for heart abnormalities with an electrocardiogram could help identifying at-risk youth.

Athletes aged 14 to 22 years were examined by researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine in U. S. high school and college. This was to find out how would these screenings influence things.

They found if the two common screenings is done alongwith an ECG then atleast two lives per 1,000 athletes could be saved that too at a cost of $89 per athlete.

That means that the yearly cost of saving lives would be $42,900.

Lead author of the study Dr Matthew Wheeler, a fellow in cardiovascular medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, said, "This information should not be a prescription -- we're not telling people what to do."

ECG readings that show seven to 20 per cent false positives could initiate further invasive testing that may not be warranted.