CAUSES OF SPORTS INJURY DANGEROUS MEDICAL PROBLEMS AND EXERCISE HEALTH PROBLEMS

Reggie Lewis, Jim Fixx: Why Seemingly Healthy People Collapse While Running or While Playing Sports: A 14 Year Old Boy Collapses After Getting Hit in the Chest at a Karate Match

It happened again. Sports is healthy and fun but sometimes sports can result in injury or worse. She had just completed the 2003 Chicago marathon when the seemingly healthy vigorous 29 year old woman who worked as a physical education teacher collapsed. Another marathon runner, without a history of problems had died. The cause was said to be mitral valve prolapse, a problem that is not often associated with such an outcome. A 14 year old boy takes an apparently innocuous hit to the chest at a karate match, doubles over and dies. This article Sudden Death in Young Athletes from the New England Journal shows photos of the boy at the karate match as he reacts to the blow.



In 2001 a 22 year old man running collapsed near the finish line of the marathon, in a previous marathon a 45 year old had collapsed and in an incident that sounded similar to one at the Boston Marathon, a 43 year old woman was said to have died because of hyponatremia, low sodium levels in the blood. Here you can read about a 33 year old man who died after crossing the finish line of the Honolulu Marathon.

University of Essex Researchers Says Sedentary People Should Avoid Sudden Strenuous Excercise

Although thousands upon thousands of people run in sporting events, races, marathons and play football, basketball and soccer, sudden cardiac death is thankfully a rare phenomenon. Nevertheless sudden death of athletes is a persistent phenomenon and it's not hard to do a search of Google and come up with stories about sports related deaths. Recently researchers at the University of Essex pointed out that people who have not been exercising regularly should avoid sudden bursts of strenuous exercise, Sudden Exercise Poses Heart Risk.

Heart Problems in Athletes and Sports Enthusiasts Are Often Difficult to Detect

Here is a:

link to a pdf of a 2003 review article called Sudden Death in Young AthletesThe review article includes a photo sequence of a boy at a karate match collapsing after sustaining a blow to the chest. A study published in 1996 in the Journal of the American Medical Association

Sudden Death in Young Competitive Athletes Clinical, Demographic, and Pathological Profiles analyzed a total of 158 sudden deaths that occurred in trained athletes throughout the United States from 1985 through 1995 .



The article says that "Of 115 athletes who had a standard pre participation medical evaluation, only 4 (3%) were suspected of having cardiovascular disease." This study found that the single most common cardiac cause of sudden death in young competitive athletes was hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. See also a pdf of

A Review of Sudden Cardiac Death in Young Athletes and Strategies for Pre participation Cardiovascular Screening

Commotio Cordis: A Hit in the Chest

Apparently Innocuous Blow to the Chest of a Child Turns into a Killer

Commotio cordis is arrhythmia (irregular heart rhythm) or sudden death from low-impact, blunt trauma to the chest without apparent heart injury. ..Commotio cordis occurs in baseball ...hockey, softball, and several other sports.". An example would be a boy playing in little league gets hit in the chest by a baseball. The ball hitting his chest sets off an arrhythmia in his heart.

See

Sports Sciences Feature: Commotio Cordis Sudden death following chest wall trauma.

Rare, fatal injury baffles science, sports

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy


It has also been called Idiopathic Hypertrophic Subaortic Stenosis.

What is Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Boston Basketball Star Reggie Lewis Had Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

According to the description of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy at the

web site of the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association "There are three types of cardiomyopathy" (disorder of the heart muscle) : "hypertrophic", "dilated" and "restrictive". The main feature of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an excessive thickening of the heart muscle (hypertrophy literally means to thicken). Thickening is seen in the ventricular septal measurement (normal range .08-1.2mm), and in weight." In hypertrophic cardiomyopathy the heart septum or wall between the two ventricles, the lower pumping chambers of the heart, is thickened. You can read these recommendations for screening for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy from the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopthy Association

See also A Physician's Guide to Treatment of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

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