- COVID linked to heart inflammation in college athletes, small study suggests
The condition was detected in athletes with mild or asymptomatic cases of COVID-19.
Growing evidence suggests that the coronavirus can damage the hearts of even the young and physically fit.
Research published Friday in the journal JAMA Cardiology found that 4 out of 26 college athletes had signs of a heart condition called myocarditis after recovering from COVID-19.
Scott Gilbert, a spokesman for Penn State Health, told NBC News that Sebastianelli had misstated the findings at the time and apologized for any confusion. Gilbert added that Penn State was not involved with the research, and that there have been no cases of myocarditis in COVID-19 positive student-athletes at the school.
In fact, the new study was conducted by doctors at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, who were considering the safest ways to send athletes back in the fall. Ultimately, the Big Ten Conference, which includes both Ohio State and Penn State, decided against playing this fall.
“We were asked this question as to what would be the safest way to send them back to competitive play,” study co-author Dr. Saurabh Rajpal, a cardiologist at Ohio State, said. “We decided in our own group that in addition to the usual recommendations, which was a clinical exam and looking for symptoms, we would also do a cardiac MRI to get more information and to see what the virus does to athletes' hearts.”
The research included both male and female athletes in basketball, lacrosse, track, soccer and football. All were confirmed to have recovered from COVID-19, and none required hospitalized or specific treatments. Twelve of the athletes reported mild COVID-19 symptoms, including a sore throat and shortness of breath or fever, while the remaining 14 were asymptomatic.
To study the virus’s effects on the heart, the athletes had several tests as well as a cardiac MRI to image the heart.
The MRIs revealed that four athletes — all men with no pre-existing conditions — had signs of myocarditis. Two reported having mild COVID-19 symptoms; the other two were asymptomatic.
It was surprising that not all of the athletes with myocarditis had symptoms of COVID-19, Dr. Brett Toresdahl, a sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, said. This was because myocarditis was initially recognized in patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
“What this study shows is that myocarditis can also occur after less severe and even asymptomatic cases" of COVID-19, said Torsedahl, who was not involved with the research. “Therefore, an athlete’s risk of myocarditis may not be related to the severity of their symptoms.": https://www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...gests-n1239875
- Coronavirus Cases: 28,683,966
Deaths: 920,264
Underreported US death count: 197,421
US conflicts and 911 Casualties………
World War I - 116,516
Vietnam War - 58,209
American Revolutionary War – 8,000
Iraq War - 4,576
War in Afghanistan - 2,216
911 Casualties – 2,977
Total US Casualties in the conflicts above and 911 Casualties: 192,494
Originally posted by Boon Mee
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