https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/news/raetselhafte-herzerkrankungen-im-fussball-li.193554
b
Puzzling heart disease in soccer
Team News
6-7 minutes
Berlin - FC Barcelona professional player Sergio Agüero will be out for at least three months. The 33-year-old had been substituted in the match against Deportivo Alavés with breathing problems. He had grabbed his chest and was taken to hospital. He is now being treated by a cardiologist for heart problems. At the European Championship, the player Christian Eriksen collapsed in front of running cameras. Diagnosis: cardiac arrest. Eriksen survived. The two professionals are just two examples of many soccer players who have to deal with sometimes life-threatening heart problems.
DFB doctor Tim Meyer said after Eriksen's collapse, "Even the best screening is not perfect, so things like this can still happen. That's why then there's the second line of prevention and that's the presence of the emergency doctors on the sidelines." But this system cannot prevent all life-threatening or even fatal cases.
Emergency situations have been occurring again and again in recent weeks and months:
According to the German Heart Foundation, "Depending on the study, there are between 0.7 and 3.0 deaths per 100,000 sports players per year." According to the experts, men are affected more often than women: "According to data from the German register on sudden cardiac death in sports (Sudden Cardiac Death Register, SCD Germany), 96% of affected athletes are men," the foundation says. As for causes, it says sudden cardiac death in sports has "different triggers."
Causes differ depending on the age of those affected
The causes vary depending on the age of the person affected. "In people under 35, possible triggers include diseases of the heart muscle, the heart valves, the aorta and the coronary vessels. Changes in the genetic material can, for example, lead to thickening of the muscles of the left ventricle (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy). Diseases of the right ventricle in particular (arrhythmogenic (right ventricular) cardiomyopathy) can also be the cause of sudden cardiac death," according to the Heart Foundation.
In people over 35, however, "coronary artery disease is the most common cause of sudden cardiac death, accounting for about 80 percent. Coronary arteries continue to narrow due to deposits (plaques) of cholesterol, connective tissue and calcium. If these plaques rupture, blood clots sometimes form and the blood vessel becomes completely blocked." The result is a heart attack, which "can be associated with life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias."
Regardless of age, he said, inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis) is considered another risk factor. "It can already occur in the course of banal viral infections, even without causing symptoms," says the German Heart Foundation. And further: "However, these inflammatory changes can lead to life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias."
___
translated from original in german at
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/news/raetselhafte-herzerkrankungen-im-fussball-li.193554
