Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli, director of athletic medicine at Penn State University, confirmed approximately a third of Big 10 athletes who tested positive for coronavirus also had cardiac MRI results that signal the presence of heart inflammation.
During a board meeting held on Monday night, Sebastianelli shared details about the myocarditis findings as he expressed concern about the possibility of athletes experiencing potentially alarming complications as a result of coronavirus.
“What we have seen when people have been studied, with cardiac MRI scans, symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID infections, is a level of inflammation in cardiac muscle that just is alarming,” Sebastianelli said.
He added, “And we don’t know why it happens, we don’t know who it’s happening in, but some of the testing that has occurred across the Big 10 has revealed roughly 30 percent of the athletes reveal this inflammation.”
See Sebastianelli’s remarks below:
While Sebastianelli admitted that he and other cardiologists are unclear on the long-term impacts due to the novelty other coronavirus, he confirmed some aspects of the findings contributed to the PAC-12 and BIG-10 conferences’ postponement of fall semester sports.
“We really just don’t know what to do with it right now, because it’s still very early in the infection, so some of that has led to the PAC-12 and the BIG-10’s decision to sort of put a hiatus on what’s happening because we really want to study this a little bit further and figure out what’s going on with the student athlete,” Sebastianelli said.
As school districts and universities work to safely reopen schools, many have already reported that a substantial number of faculty members and students have either tested positive for the coronavirus or have been placed under quarantine as a precaution.
The United States has reported more than 6.3 million coronavirus cases and over 190,000 deaths, as of Thursday afternoon,
