AAP Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness Blog

Link: http://www.2theadvocate.com/features/16014967.html?showAll=y&c=y

This was from a newspaper in Louisiana and since it was talking about a link from diabetes and HCM, which I’m not aware of any specific link between, there may be some young athletes who hear about this and get concerns. So here is the source.

Cardiologists say heart condition that took the life of female athlete is usually genetic
By JOHN BOYD
Advocate staff writer
Published: Feb 27, 2008 - Page: 1E
The heart condition which caused the death of a Glen Oaks girls basketball player Feb. 18 is usually genetic and is not related to juvenile diabetes, local cardiologists say.

An initial East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office statement stopped short of definitively linking hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and diabetes, but said diabetes likely exacerbated the effects of the heart problem which killed Shannon Veal during a playoff basketball game.

Pediatric cardiologist Dr. Michael Crapanzano received about 50 phone calls in the two days following Veal’s death during a playoff basketball game.

Many were parents concerned their children’s diabetes could lead to sudden heart failure.

“There has been a lot of panic,” Crapanzano, of Pediatric Cardiology Associates of Our Lady of the Lake, said.

Crapanzano said diabetes poses its own cardiac risks, but patients with diabetes have no greater risk of developing hypertrophic cardiomyopathy than the general population.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HC) causes the wall separating the lower chambers of the heart to unnaturally expand from about .8 centimeters to as much as 6 centimeters until eventually it chokes off the supply of blood to the body.

“Over time, the thickening gets worse and worse until you have an event,” Crapanzano said. “In about a third of those cases the event is death.”

The condition is treatable by medication, pacemaker, defibrillator implant or, in severe cases, a controlled heart attack known as an alcohol septal ablation, Baton Rouge General Chief of Cardiovascular Services Steven Kelly said.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is sometimes confused with “athlete’s heart,” a natural enlargement of the heart muscle caused by repeated participation in vigorous exercises, such as swimming, rowing or running.

The enlargement allows the heart to pump more oxygen-rich blood to the body with each beat.

A primary difference between athlete’s heart and HC is the extent to which the heart wall thickens.

In a teenager with athlete’s heart, the wall may only expand to about 1.4 centimeters, Crapanzano said. The growth is uniform across the wall and fades soon after the athlete stops his or her regular regimen.

In HC, the thickening centers on the septum dividing the two chambers, slowly choking off the blood supply.

The condition often renders the heart unable to re-sync when arrhythmias throw the natural heartbeat out of whack.

The result is severe chest pains, loss of consciousness or even death.

Because the potential for arrhythmias is so high for athletes competing in strenuous sports such as basketball and football, doctors will not clear an athlete to participate in these kinds of activities following a diagnosis of HC, Kelley and Crapanzano concurred.

Kenny Henderson, commissioner of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association, said his organization does not require an HC screen as part of an athlete’s annual physical.

The condition’s presence is likely to sound an alarm during the exam though, Kelley said.

“If they have a murmur they can detect that,” Kelley said, “but not only in the physical part but during the medical history. Do they have any chest pains? Shortness of breath? Is there a history of anyone dying early in their family? Do they ever black out?”

Such red flags get an athlete automatically sent to Crapanzano for further exams.

Crapanzano said he receives about 250 red flag cases from the general student population each year; about 50 are athletes.

His specialized screening process turns up only one or two cases of HC each year, he said.

The screening may miss minor cases of HC, he said, but regular check-ups are likely to eventually root out the problem.

“There are subtle things you look for,” Crapanzano said. “It just takes time sometimes to manifest itself, but the subtle ones aren’t the ones that die

Not sure the details on this but was just released on AP. Not sure if we have anyone from this area of Carolina that can shed light on this. Hopefully not second impact.

LINCOLNTON, N.C. (AP) - A 13-year-old boy who was injured in a football game died later at a hospital, officials said Thursday.
Will McLeod, 13, was an eighth-grader at North Lincoln Middle School. He was hurt Wednesday night during a game against West Lincoln Middle School, said district spokeswoman Belinda Branson.

Branson said the injury occurred on a “typical football play,” but she did not have any other details. The boy was rushed to Carolinas Medical Center in Lincoln, then transferred to the medical center’s branch in Charlotte.

The district has counselors and ministers on hand to help students, Branson said. Rhonda Hager, principal at the North Lincoln school, described Will as “an excellent student and a joy to be around