[Mick]

A big problem in understanding this is that these eye popping percentages are based on a cardiac MRI, a relatively new exam that has not typically been used as a screening exam, as it has been for some athletes during the pandemic.

If a patient is asymptomatic but has inflammation on an MRI, unclear what to do with that information. Maybe some inflammation on cardiac MRI is common after all viral infections. We don't know.

That said, it's still alarming to have objective evidence of heart inflammation no matter what. Caution should carry the day until we know more.

When I was 25, our first house was on Mariposa just south of the Stanford campus.  I used to run to Hoover Tower and back every morning, weighed about 190 at the time, still in pretty good shape..  One morning, I thought I was having a heart attack. It felt like my heart literally hurt. Thought I was having a heart attack.  Went to the doc.  EEG, EKG, sonar exam...I had an enlarged heart, they said.  They recommended rest for a few weeks.  Thirty years later, heart failure.  I don't smoke, and my valves are clean as a whistle.  Always wondered if they were linked.

[Mick]

A big problem in understanding this is that these eye popping percentages are based on a cardiac MRI, a relatively new exam that has not typically been used as a screening exam, as it has been for some athletes during the pandemic.

If a patient is asymptomatic but has inflammation on an MRI, unclear what to do with that information. Maybe some inflammation on cardiac MRI is common after all viral infections. We don't know.

That said, it's still alarming to have objective evidence of heart inflammation no matter what. Caution should carry the day until we know more.

When I was 25, our first house was on Mariposa just south of the Stanford campus.  I used to run to Hoover Tower and back every morning, weighed about 190 at the time, still in pretty good shape..  One morning, I thought I was having a heart attack. It felt like my heart literally hurt. Thought I was having a heart attack.  Went to the doc.  EEG, EKG, sonar exam...I had an enlarged heart, they said.  They recommended rest for a few weeks.  Thirty years later, heart failure.  I don't smoke, and my valves are clean as a whistle.  Always wondered if they were linked.