Doctor: Athlete's death puts focus on heart disease

Dr. Deepak Bhatt

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(CNN) -- The untimely death of St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile has shocked the sports world and baseball fans.

Kile, 33, was found dead in his Chicago hotel room Saturday after teammates became concerned when he didn't show up at Wrigley Field. An autopsy Sunday indicated he likely died from a blocked coronary artery, said the Cook County, Illinois, medical examiner.

CNN anchor Kyra Phillips discussed the tragedy Monday with Deepak Bhatt, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic.

MORE STORIES Autopsy finds blocked coronary artery

PHILLIPS: Preliminary results from Darryl Kile's autopsy show that he succumbed to the same fate as his father: fatal heart disease at an early age. ... The autopsy shows 80 percent to 90 percent blockages in two of Kile's coronary arteries. He was 33 years old, 11 years younger than his father when he died of a heart attack in 1993.

Joining us with more on heart problems and family ties and warning signs, or lack of them, is Dr. Deepak Bhatt. ...

So, is -- likely the cause here, is it a heart attack since we are talking about coronary artery blockages?

BHATT: Almost certainly, as the coroner himself had indicated, the cause of death here was a heart attack. It sounds like Mr. Kile had a major degree of atherosclerotic narrowing of two out of three of his heart arteries. And certainly this would predispose him to a heart attack, including a life-ending heart attack.

This is really a tragedy that such a young man would succumb to heart disease. But, as you pointed out, very likely it is linked in some way to the fact that his own father died of heart disease at a young age.

PHILLIPS: Aren't there tests, imaging tests, that you can take to sort of -- if you have a family history of heart disease -- that you could do on a regular basis to try and prevent this?

BHATT: That's a terrific question that you've raised. And I suspect that same question is on minds of a lot of people. What could Mr. Kile have done differently or what could his doctors have done differently to have changed the outcome here?

And unfortunately there aren't really any great ways to detect heart disease at such an early age. We know that genetics play a large role when someone has a heart attack at such an early age, but currently there are no available genetic screening tests that could have perhaps said that Mr. Kile himself was at increased risk of heart attack.

At our own center at the Cleveland Clinic, we are in the process of studying patients in different research protocols. One is called GeneQuest. Another one that my colleague and chairman, Dr. Eric J. Topol, is about to embark on, GeneBank, will get to the genetic underpinnings of coronary artery disease and in particular premature coronary artery disease.

But until such genetic tests are available, right now what we have to rely on are such things as the presence of symptoms, which can be useful. That is, if Mr. Kile did have chest pain, for example, when he was exercising or playing baseball, that would have been a useful warning sign.

But presumably he didn't have such warning signs. And in that situation, there are tests -- stress tests, for example, that might be useful.

But I suspect in the case of Mr. Kile, since he had such excellent exercise capacity and endurance, a stress test may have been unrevealing also. So really, using current technology, there is no great test that could have prevented this tragedy from occurring.

PHILLIPS: So, let's say you are in perfect condition. You exercise every day. You watch what you eat, perfect bill of health. How common is it that you still can have coronary artery blockages?

BHATT: Well, the scary thing about coronary artery disease is that, in some respects, it's unpredictable. In fact, it's useful if people have warning signs such as chest pain. Well, that's the body early warning system saying, "Hey, go ahead and get things checked out."

Unfortunately, many people don't have warning signs of heart artery disease. That is the first manifestation of heart disease is a fatal heart attack, sudden cardiac death, in fact the leading killer of both men and women in the United States. And while it's unusual -- or I should say less usual for someone in Mr. Kile's age group to succumb to heart artery disease in this way -- it can happen, in particular when there's a family history.

So I think, as far as positive steps that we can take certainly in people that do have an identified history of family heart disease, it is important to watch diet, cut out cholesterol and high-fat foods, to exercise regularly, as presumably Mr. Kile did, but just in general to adopt the sort of healthy behaviors that are encouraged of all people.

But if you do have a personal family history of heart disease, really it's a warning signal to redouble your own efforts in these regards. That is diet, exercise and so forth.

And furthermore it's important to go in to your doctor for that so-called regular checkup and get things like your cholesterol screened. Make sure that your cholesterol isn't too high.

If it is, perhaps medications in addition to diet would be warranted. Check and make sure that you don't have adult diabetes. And, if the blood sugars really are high, again perhaps in addition to diet, medications might be useful. And screening for high blood pressure is another thing that really everyone should have.

But in particular, if one has a family history of early heart disease, checking for these modifiable risk factors, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, can make a big impact. Furthermore, certain things that people do, such as smoking, have been shown to play a large role in triggering heart attacks, in particular in people that have strong family histories.