30-35 percent of COVID-19-positive Big Ten athletes had myocarditis
- Thread starter traboh
- Start date
Slippery slope if athletes are withheld for a condition any virus could / does create.
Myocarditis is kind of a big deal for people who heavily work their hearts day in and day out. That's pretty dangerous, we're not talking about a nasal drip here. This should be seriously looked into, and quickly. 1/3rd is a lot.
What I hate about this article today is it is NOT 30% of big ten athletes!!! It is 30% of Penn st athletes whom they are calling big ten arthletes
And 30% of how many athletes? 10 total infected so 3 with myocarditis, or 100 total infected?
kcbob79clone
Well-Known Member
Myocarditis could be caused by a great number of things, this per HealthJade:
- Viruses. Many viruses are commonly associated with myocarditis, including the viruses that cause the common cold (adenovirus); cytomegalovirus ; hepatitis B and C; parvovirus, which causes a mild rash, usually in children (fifth disease); rubeola, varicella, variola/vaccinia, arbovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, yellow fever virus, rabies, parvovirus and herpes simplex virus.Gastrointestinal infections (echoviruses), mononucleosis (Epstein-Barr virus), poliomyelitis, mumps, and German measles (rubella) also can cause myocarditis. It’s also common in people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
- Bacteria. Numerous bacteria can cause myocarditis, including staphylococcus, streptococcus, mycoplasma, tuberculosis, chlamydia, meningococci, brucellosis, clostridia, the bacterium that causes diphtheria, melioidosis, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, psittacosis and the tick-borne bacterium responsible for Lyme disease.
- A chest infection
- Fungal infection
- Parasites. Among these are such parasites as Trypanosoma cruzi, trypanosomiasis, malaria, leishmaniasis, balantidiasis, sarcosporidiosis and toxoplasma, including some that are transmitted by insects and can cause a condition called Chagas disease. This disease is much more prevalent in Central and South America than in the United States, but it can occur in travelers and in immigrants from that part of the world.
- Rickettsial – Scrub typhus, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Q fever
- Spirochetal – Syphilis, leptospirosis/Weil disease, relapsing fever/Borrelia, Lyme disease
- Fungi. Yeast infections, such as candida; molds, such as aspergillus; cryptococcosis, actinomycosis, blastomycosis, coccidioidomycosis, mucormycosis and other fungi, such as histoplasma, often found in bird droppings, can sometimes cause myocarditis, particularly in people with weakened immune systems.
- Helminthic – Trichinosis, echinococcosis, schistosomiasis, heterophyiasis, cysticercosis, visceral larva migrans, filariasis
- Bites/stings – Scorpion venom, snake venom, black widow spider venom, wasp venom, tick paralysis
- Drugs (usually causing hypersensitivity myocarditis)
- Chemotherapeutic drugs – Doxorubicin and anthracyclines, streptomycin, cyclophosphamide, interleukin-2, anti-HER-2 receptor antibody/Herceptin
- Antibiotics – Penicillin, chloramphenicol, sulfonamides
- Antihypertensive drugs – Methyldopa, spironolactone
- Antiseizure drugs – Phenytoin, carbamazepine
- Amphetamines, cocaine, catecholamines
- Chemicals – Hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, arsenic, lead, phosphorus, mercury, cobalt
- Physical agents (radiation, heatstroke, hypothermia)
- Acute rheumatic fever
- Systemic inflammatory disease – Giant cell myocarditis, sarcoidosis, Kawasaki disease, Crohn disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, ulcerative colitis,
- Wegener granulomatosis, thyrotoxicosis, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis
- Peripartum cardiomyopathy
- Posttransplant cellular rejection
- Medications or illegal drugs that might cause an allergic or toxic reaction. These include drugs used to treat cancer; antibiotics, such as penicillin and sulfonamide drugs; some anti-seizure medications; and some illegal substances, such as cocaine.
- Chemicals or radiation. Exposure to certain chemicals, such as carbon monoxide, and radiation can sometimes cause myocarditis.
- Other diseases. An auto immune disease (when a person’s own immune system attacks their body). These include disorders such as lupus, Wegener’s granulomatosis, giant cell arteritis and Takayasu’s arteritis.
Because of the current crisis and because myocrarditis has a bigger impacts on athletes the Big 12 will conduct heart health checks, including an EKG, troponin blood test, echocardiogram and cardiac MRI if a player tests positive for Covid-19.
A couple of comments: because of the many potential causes we cannot automatically assume that every case of myocarditis but it is an interesting datapoint for sure; has he compiled the results of all the cardiac MRIs or is he extrapolating since I didn't know until this that the B1G was doing this testing?; Since the Big12 is doing all the above tests what are the results? What about the results of the SEC and ACC testing?
Both of the above are very interesting reads. The 30-35% seems very generalized in that they may have used a small sample and then generalized it to mean all. I would think that an athlete with COVID will get follow-up heart care if myocarditis is detected and then shut down. But, that would happen regardless of COVID, Flu, or other virus infection.
I believe the article and the topic is very serious but if this is the case, why are they even talking about playing football this winter or next spring? Or any sports at all? They've laid things out in a way that a vaccine won't even clear them to play. They need the virus to be eradicated for the things they are talking about to no longer be a concern. It's tough to see anything they say now as anything other than damage control or an attack at the leagues who chose to play. They can't be talking out of both sides of their mouth and expect to be taken serious anymore.
30% of Penn State athletes who tested positive for COVID. So its an even smaller number yet who actually had myocarditis. But the implication is that 30% of all college athletes who test positive will also develop myocarditis.
kcbob79clone
Well-Known Member
People acting like they're being personally attacked because this article exists or was posted.
Gorm wasn't dismissing mycarditis as being dangerous. Myocarditis is caused by a number of other illnesses besides COVID. No one has ever questioned an athlete competing right after having the flu (or even while having the flu) even though flu causes myocarditis, for example.
Its really hard to fault the big 10 for simply being cautious when there's a lot of unknowns out there but some big downside potential. But somehow the very idea of that is offensive to some people. Some for political reasons, some because they love to hate on the big 10.
Flu can cause myocarditis. I think the concern is whether or not COVID is more likely to cause it than other "normal" causes. If only 1% if flu cases result in myocarditis compared to, say, 10% of COVID cases, combined with COVID's high transmissibility, then COVID is a much higher risk to the ability to play a season.
I think it would be beneficial to have all the athletes get these heart tests done (covid or not). That way they have a baseline to work with. I realize that the expenses would be really high but it would help to know what their hearts looked like if they don't get covid or before they get it. The volume of testing that would be needed might not be feasible though.
Exactly.
The 2009 Nebraska game comes to mind where reports were almost half the ISU team was passing the flu around to each other. In a situation like that, do we need to test all those athletes for Myocarditis? If we are going to do it for COVID, then we probably should for all the other known causes as well.