rbg
Postdoc
Posts: 3058
Reg: 10-20-14
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03-04-21 01:08 PM - Post#321339
In response to rbg
Study shows less than 1% of pro athletes infected by COVID-19 also developed inflammatory heart disease
https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/31003 626/stud...
- Five of 789 professional athletes infected with COVID-19 were later found to have suffered inflammatory heart disease in the largest study to date on the cardiac impact of the virus in sports.
In data published Thursday in JAMA Cardiology, doctors affiliated with six U.S.-based leagues followed the 789 infected players last year between May and October.
Before returning to play, the athletes underwent three noninvasive tests that tracked heart rhythms, took an ultrasound of their hearts, and measured a protein in their blood that can be a signal of heart damage. Thirty athletes had abnormal test results and were referred for a cardiac MRI. Doctors diagnosed five cases of inflammatory heart disease (0.6% of the total), including three cases identified as myocarditis and two as pericarditis.
Dr. David Engel, a cardiologist at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and one of the paper's lead authors, said the results were in line with current assessments that cardiac injury from COVID-19 correlates with the severity of symptoms. The study incorporated infected athletes who were both symptomatic and asymptomatic. All five of the cases of cardiac illness included symptoms that "exceeded empirical definitions of mild COVID-19 illness," according to the paper. -
- The professional sports leagues who contributed data to the JAMA Cardiology paper -- the NBA, WNBA, NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer -- followed a standardized screening procedure recommended by the American College of Cardiology. It included blood tests, an electrocardiogram and a resting echocardiogram, or heart ultrasound. Further tests, and eventually diagnosis, were based on abnormalities from the initial screening.
"There was a lot of controversy about how to interpret these cardiac MRI studies and really what the meaning of these findings were," Engel said. "This study had a very clinically-relevant approach. Patients who tested positive went through the recommended screening from the American College of Cardiology. It was only after there were abnormalities that we went on for further testing. Using this step-wise approach, we found what we considered to be clinically-relevant incidents of myocarditis and pericarditis to be quite low." -
- The study did not shed light on what might happen over the long term with those players who were diagnosed with heart inflammation. They will continue to be monitored with MRIs to see if the effects fade away with time.
"Only time will tell if, five years from now, we'll have an epidemic of failed hearts," said Dr. Robert Bonow, a cardiologist at Northwestern University and editor of JAMA Cardiology, who was not affiliated with the study. "But I think that is unlikely."
Results of the two other forthcoming studies on the possible COVID-cardiac link are expected to be published soon, pending peer review. -
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