One of the reasons Big Ten decided to postpone the fall games on August 11 was due to concerns over links between COVID-19 and heart issues, particularly myocarditis.
Big Ten’s vote in favor of playing football this fall may, in part, depend on whether the council is confident it can reduce the risks.
One way to make it big is to use cardiac MRI to detect possible cases of myocarditis in athletes who test positive for COVID-19.
Amid discussions in the Big Ten and across the country about the dangers of playing sports during the COVID-19 epidemic, a team of Ohio state doctors and researchers conducted a study using cardiac MRI – also known as CMR – to detect symptoms associated with myocarditis in college athletes who Tested positive for.
One of the findings of the study, released on Friday: “While large studies, including long-term follow-up and control populations, are needed to understand CMR changes in competitive athletes, CMR can provide an excellent risk-level assessment for myocarditis in athletes. To guide those who have recovered from COVID-19 to participate in safe competitive sports. ”
“The focus of our study was if we could do a test that would allow the athletes to start playing again, so that the doctors who are watching these athletes would feel safe in sending them back to the competitive game. And if you deny myocarditis through MRI, sports cardiologists will feel safe about sending these athletes back into action, ”said Ohio State Cardiologist Saurabh Rajpal, lead author of the study.
The Ohio State study examined 26 competitive college-led athletes and found swelling in the heart muscle, four of which indicate possible myocarditis. Eight other athletes were later found to have elevated gadolinium, which the governor said could be an indicator of a previous injury to the heart, such as a virus, but could indicate athlete heart adaptation simply because of how hard they exercise.
Because the study included only 26 athletes, Rajpal said the data were not sufficient to draw any statistically significant conclusions about how high the risk of myocarditis associated with COVID-19 is. He also did not comment on whether sports should be played during the epidemic. In the state of Ohio, however, cardiac MRI has been used to clear athletes to return to practice, in addition to the typical tests that team doctors will conduct on athletes after they become ill.
“When we started studying, our goal was to find something that would make us feel safe sending these athletes back,” Rajpal said. Eleven Warriors. “In addition to the general test, in our opinion the MRI was to be done. So if you do an MRI, and the heart doesn’t show myocarditis, at OSU we let athletes go back to practice. If the MRI is negative we let them go back to the normal intensity of the exercise. ”
The risk of myocarditis – inflammation of the heart muscle – needs to be taken seriously by team doctors as it is known to cause sudden cardiac death in athletes. If an athlete has a condition and returns to action quickly, it can have serious consequences.
Myocarditis is not a new phenomenon, however, and it can also be caused by other viruses; It is now attracting more attention because of how widespread the COVID-19 epidemic is.
“If someone’s heart is swollen, and they do that intense exercise, they are at risk of an abnormal heart rhythm, and this can lead to death,” Rajpal said. “These are rare examples, I point out, and myocarditis itself is very unusual. It is not a common disease. But because many people are affected by viral infections, we are talking more about it. ”
James Borchers, chief physician of the Ohio State football team, was among those who co-authored the study with the governor. He is now serving as co-chair of the medical subcommittee on the Big Ten’s Competition Task Force Return, whose plans to return to the game were positively received by a steering committee of eight Big Ten presidents and chancellors on Saturday. Vote on play this fall as well as Sunday. During a Divine briefing on Ohio 18, when asked about myocarditis by Ohio Governor Mike Duane, he suggested that doctors “need to be careful,” but also be overly afraid of what they don’t need. ”
Significant figure in # B1G Return to Saga, Dr. Jim Borchers, #OhioStateLead Team Physician. Co-chair B1G Medical Subcommittee with PSU AD Sandy Barber. League sources tell me they are very impressed with Borchers. His voice and the key to other doctors tomorrow
– Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) September 12, 2020
Aaron Baggish, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital’s vascular demonstration program, said during a broadcast Friday NCAA’s official facial social media account Nor does he believe that concerns about myocarditis should be a reason not to play the game of college league, believing that proper protocol can identify athletes who develop heart symptoms and keep them out of action until they are completely healthy.
“The algorithms we’ve put in place, I firmly believe, are going to identify high-risk athletes who should be banned, and that should be a personal decision between the team’s physicians, sports cardiologists and the patient’s athlete,” Buggish said. “The decision to play football or other collegiate sports right now, in my opinion, is more about the ability to contain the transmission of this virus as a health issue than a cardiology issue.”
Speaking of Ohio State research, the governor says the next step would include doing a cardiac MRI on athletes who have not tested positive for Covid-19 who have compared their results. They will also do follow-up scans on athletes who have shown symptoms of myocarditis to see how they recover, while they also plan to test for blood markers to see if they can identify any indicators associated with myocarditis.
Ultimately, Ohio State research will allow them to publish more conclusions about the high risk of myocarditis as a result of COVID-19 infection, as well as other factors that make them more likely to contract COVID-1. Continue with heart related issues, but they are not there yet.
“I think there have been a lot of studies that have shown that this infection can affect the heart. We need to get more data and do more research to determine how to identify the population that is affected by the heart. “And then figure out what the next step is to go ahead and reduce the risk, and move on from there.”
