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Sports Medicine

Return to Play for Athletes After COVID-19 InfectionThe Fog Begins to Clear

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To identify the key insights or developments described in this article

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JAMA Cardiology

Published Online: May 27, 2021

Editorial

Article Information and Disclosures

James E. Udelson, MD¹;

Ethan J. Rowin, MD¹;

Barry J. Maron, MD¹

Author Affiliations

¹Division of Cardiology, The CardioVascular Center, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts

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In October 2020, Kim and colleagues, representing the American College of Cardiology’s Sports and Exercise Council, published recommendations¹ for the evaluation of athletes who had tested positive for COVID-19 to ensure safe return to play. The group recommended a tiered approach based on the presence of symptoms, followed by electrocardiography (ECG), injury biomarkers, and echocardiography. Abnormalities were then to be further characterized by the selective use of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging. The recommendations were based on expert opinion of experienced sports cardiologists, because there were at the time only modest data to inform such a document. A report² on 26 college athletes who were asymptomatic or had only mild symptoms found CMR evidence of myocarditis in 4 (15%). Both the Kim et al report¹ and our Editorial³ at the time called for larger data sets, so that recommendations could be refined and more informed by data.

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Article Information

Corresponding Author: James E. Udelson, MD, Division of Cardiology, Tufts Medical Center, 800 Washington St, Box 70, Boston, MA 02111 (judelson@tuftsmedicalcenter.org).

Published Online: May 27, 2021. doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2021.2079

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.

References

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