BALTIMORE, June 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Research released this week at the Scientific Sessions of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) sheds new light on several topics related to the uses of and innovations in heart ultrasound. For additional information on any of these topics, please contact Mela Kucera at 443/812-2926.
RETIRED NFL LINEMEN AT GREATER RISK FOR CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE; MORE THAN HALF HAVE METABOLIC SYNDROME
Research conducted by Mount Sinai Heart and the Living Heart Foundation (LHF) indicates that retired National Football League (NFL) linemen may be at greater risk for cardiovascular disease than non-linemen. The study found that some retired NFL linemen have persistent enlarged hearts. A second study conducted by Mt. Sinai, LHF and the Pennsylvania State College of Medicine found that half of all retired NFL linemen have the Metabolic Syndrome.
An explanation for these findings may be that former NFL linemen have a larger body mass index (BMI), an established risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
NFL linemen are required to increase their size and strength to remain competitive, which may expose them to health risks later in life. As waistlines are expanding in the NFL and in the general population, these findings have ramifications for lifestyle changes to improve the health and nutrition for athletes and non-athletes who are large in size.
Although ASE does not recommend that all athletes get a heart ultrasound, if an athlete does elect to have the test, ASE advises that it be performed by a qualified, experienced cardiac sonographer using ASE guidelines and analyzed by a cardiologist who has specific knowledge of the subtle yet important differences between the “athletic” and “normal” heart.
TISSUE DOPPLER IMAGING PROVES SUPERIOR IN DETERMINING HEALTHY PHYSIOLOGY FROM RISK FACTORS IN ATHLETES’ HEARTS
Research conducted at the Sports Medicine Centre in Florence, Italy demonstrated the technical superiority of pulsed-wave Tissue Doppler in imaging the hearts of professional athletes. Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI) is a heart ultrasound technique that evaluates the heart muscle.
Differences exist between an athlete’s heart and a non-athlete’s heart. One such difference is that athletes’ hearts often show the expression of left ventricular hypertrophy, or a thickening of the heart muscle. This difference may be a physiological change due to the strenuous conditioning that athletes undergo, or it could be the expression of a pathological hypertrophy associated with mild hypertension. These distinctions can be particularly difficult to make when examining images of an athlete’s heart.
As more and more professional athletic leagues are using heart ultrasounds as part of the players’ standard physical, it is important that the best imaging system be employed to reduce the risk of misdiagnosis. A misdiagnosis could result in a healthy athlete not being permitted to play when they are in fact healthy, or an at-risk athlete being allowed on the field.
LEFT VENTRICULAR MASS INDEX (LVMI) IS SIGNIFICANT PREDICTOR OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE
Research conducted at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center, MedStar Research Institute, Missouri Breaks Industries Research Inc., and Oklahoma University indicates that the ramifications of the Left Ventricular Mass Index (LVMI) are more serious than previously believed.
LVMI, a measure of the weight of the left side of the heart, was previously known to be a predictor of cardiovascular disease in groups of patients where hypertension is prevalent and in whom the heart muscle is thickened.
This study, however, reveals that LVMI at levels conventionally considered normal, is also a predictor of cardiovascular events, which would lead to death in patients who had no history of hypertension or cardiovascular disease.
HEART ULTRASOUND REVEALS LINK BETWEEN PEDIATRIC OBESITY, SLEEP APNEA AND POTENTIALLY FATAL RISK FACTORS
Heart ultrasounds can identify pulmonary hypertension - potentially fatal pressure in the lungs - in children who are obese and have sleep apnea. The finding came from a study of the prevalence of pulmonary hypertension in children with systemic hypertension, or high blood pressure.
In the study, after other causes of the pulmonary hypertension were ruled out, a significant percentage of those children that were found to have increased lung pressure were also obese. And a significant number of those children (67%) were found to also have sleep apnea though this was not previously clinically suspected.
The study was conducted at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston.
HEART ULTRASOUNDS SHOWN TO BENEFIT PATIENTS WITH KIDNEY DISEASE
Patients on the waiting list for renal transplant may significantly benefit from having a stress echocardiogram - a stress test using a heart ultrasound. There are currently 64,000 patients on the waiting list for renal transplant (RT). The single most common cause of death in RT patients is cardiovascular disease. Pre-transplant detection and treatment of heart disease has been shown to decrease mortality and morbidity post-transplant.
The research presented today showed that patients whose stress echocardiogram was abnormal had a 30% chance of having a major cardiac event in the first year after transplant. However, in those with a normal stress echocardiogram, the risk was only 3.6%. In short, the research demonstrated that stress echocardiography has excellent predictive accuracy in chronic kidney disease patients both when assessing these patients before transplant, as well as when analyzing their risk after transplant.
The research was conducted at the Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI.
The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) is a professional organization of physicians, cardiac sonographers, nurses and scientists involved in echocardiography, the use of ultrasound to image the heart and cardiovascular system. The organization was founded in 1975 and has more than 11,000 members nationally and internationally. For more information on ASE, visit http://www.asecho.org or ASE’s Public Information site, http://www.SeeMyHeart.org.
American Society of Echocardiography
CONTACT: Media Contact - Mela Kucera, APR, of Imre Communications,+1-443-812-2926 (cell), melak@imrecommunications.com, for the AmericanSociety of Echocardiography
