HARTFORD, Conn. — Research from a database of more than 3,000 NCAA athletes who have tested positive for COVID-19 is expected to be released in the next few months and will help sports medicine doctors and cardiologists establish guidelines for college athletes returning to play after contracting the coronavirus.
The data could help doctors better understand the prevalence of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, in athletes who have had COVID-19. Myocarditis, if undiagnosed, can cause sudden exercise-related death.
Dr. Rachel Lampert, professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine and a cardiologist with Yale Medicine, is on the steering committee for the Outcomes Registry for Cardiac Conditions in Athletes (ORCCA), which was formed by sports medicine and cardiologists at Harvard and the University of Washington in conjunction with the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine and the American Heart Society. Over 60 colleges nationwide are participating in the study.
