College athletes show signs of possible heart injury after COVID-19

Friday, September 11, 2020 - 15:50 in Health & Medicine

Amid growing concerns that a bout of COVID-19 might damage the heart, a small study is reporting signs of an inflammatory heart condition in college athletes who had the infection. More than two dozen male and female competitive athletes at Ohio State University underwent magnetic resonance imaging of their hearts in the weeks to months after a positive test for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The images indicated swelling in the heart muscle and possible injury to cells in four of the athletes, or 15 percent, researchers report online September 11 in JAMA Cardiology. That could mean the athletes had myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle most frequently caused by viral infections. Heart images of eight additional athletes showed signs of possible injury to cells without evidence of swelling. It’s more difficult to interpret whether these changes in the heart tissue are due to coronavirus infection, says Saurabh Rajpal, a...

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