Rink
07-27-2004, 05:32 AM
Posted 7/25/2004 7:33 PM
<font size=4>Rare, fatal injury baffles science, sports</font>
By In-Sung Yoo, USA TODAY
A rising fastball. A slap shot to the chest. A wayward elbow as players battle for a rebound.
In the athletic arena, where physical selflessness is an integral part of the culture, injuries are inevitable, and pain has an almost honored standing. But no one is supposed to die.
Yet for the 156 people who have died since 1998 from the mysterious syndrome called commotio cordis, a confluence of unfortunate events combined to take their life in a literal heartbeat.
There has been growing interest in the rare yet almost always fatal condition — sometimes called cardiac concussion — but it remains largely veiled in mystery, leaving the governing bodies of youth sports at a loss and sports medicine experts scrambling for answers and funding. And research on the condition has exposed major deficiencies in the standards that govern the manufacture of athletic chest protectors.
Victims often healthy
Commotio cordis takes place when a blunt impact over the heart occurs during a 20-millisecond window of the heartbeat, sending the victim into cardiac arrest. Only 15% of victims survive commotio cordis events.
By its very nature, it sometimes just doesn't make sense — "a counterintuitive" condition, says one expert. The typical victim is young, male and, by all measures, perfectly healthy. In many cases the impact to the chest looks innocent enough. Commotio cordis is triggered by the timing of the blow, not the severity, so it is characterized by its lack of visible trauma to the heart itself. Additionally, there are cases where athletes died even when struck through chest protectors.
While the incidence is still very rare, the number of cases per year is growing, and most experts agree that it is still significantly underreported, often classified simply as cardiac arrest or accidental death.
The death of Cornell men's lacrosse player George Boiardi in March put the national spotlight on that sport, but the biggest chunk of cases is found in baseball. Sixty-three occurred in baseball, 14 in both softball and ice hockey, 12 in football, eight in soccer, and five in lacrosse. No autopsy was performed on Boiardi, but the medical consensus is that the syndrome was to blame.
More on this Story (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-07-25-heart-athletes_x.htm)
<font size=4>Rare, fatal injury baffles science, sports</font>
By In-Sung Yoo, USA TODAY
A rising fastball. A slap shot to the chest. A wayward elbow as players battle for a rebound.
In the athletic arena, where physical selflessness is an integral part of the culture, injuries are inevitable, and pain has an almost honored standing. But no one is supposed to die.
Yet for the 156 people who have died since 1998 from the mysterious syndrome called commotio cordis, a confluence of unfortunate events combined to take their life in a literal heartbeat.
There has been growing interest in the rare yet almost always fatal condition — sometimes called cardiac concussion — but it remains largely veiled in mystery, leaving the governing bodies of youth sports at a loss and sports medicine experts scrambling for answers and funding. And research on the condition has exposed major deficiencies in the standards that govern the manufacture of athletic chest protectors.
Victims often healthy
Commotio cordis takes place when a blunt impact over the heart occurs during a 20-millisecond window of the heartbeat, sending the victim into cardiac arrest. Only 15% of victims survive commotio cordis events.
By its very nature, it sometimes just doesn't make sense — "a counterintuitive" condition, says one expert. The typical victim is young, male and, by all measures, perfectly healthy. In many cases the impact to the chest looks innocent enough. Commotio cordis is triggered by the timing of the blow, not the severity, so it is characterized by its lack of visible trauma to the heart itself. Additionally, there are cases where athletes died even when struck through chest protectors.
While the incidence is still very rare, the number of cases per year is growing, and most experts agree that it is still significantly underreported, often classified simply as cardiac arrest or accidental death.
The death of Cornell men's lacrosse player George Boiardi in March put the national spotlight on that sport, but the biggest chunk of cases is found in baseball. Sixty-three occurred in baseball, 14 in both softball and ice hockey, 12 in football, eight in soccer, and five in lacrosse. No autopsy was performed on Boiardi, but the medical consensus is that the syndrome was to blame.
More on this Story (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-07-25-heart-athletes_x.htm)