AHA/AMSSM develop new registry to assess COVID-19, CVD in college athletes
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The American Heart Association and the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine created a national registry to track COVID-19 cases and CVD in NCAA athletes, according to a press release.
The new Outcomes Registry for Cardiac Conditions in Athletes, or ORCCA, has already collected data from more than 3,000 athletes, and will aid research on COVID-19 and help to develop a deeper knowledge base on CVD in college athletes.
ORCCA was developed with participation from the NCAA and more than 60 schools contributing data to the registry.
“There have been many high-profile cases of athletes at the collegiate and professional levels showing myocarditis, a dangerous inflammation of the heart, after COVID-19,” Mariell Jessup, MD, FAHA, cardiologist and chief science and medical officer for the AHA, said in the release. “Research and data are key to answering the ongoing debate in college sports about the safety of return to play and guidelines on the appropriate assessment of the athletes.”
The research team is led by three primary investigators:
- Jonathan Drezner, MD, professor in the department of family medicine and center for sports cardiology at the University of Washington in Seattle;
- Kimberly Harmon, MD, professor in the department of family medicine and section head of the section of sports medicine at the University of Washington; and
- Aaron Baggish, MD, director of the cardiovascular performance program at Massachusetts General Hospital.
“Many college athletes are students of color, coming from communities with higher risk factors for COVID-19 complications,” Stephanie Kliethermes, PhD, research director of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine and the AMSSM Collaborative Research Network, said in the release. “This registry is an exciting and important starting point for the long-term investigation of cardiac outcomes in a diverse group of athletes diagnosed with COVID-19 and other heart conditions which present a potential health risk.”
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