Cardinals DL JJ Watt had Atrial fibrillation treatment Thursday; Playing today

[ET80]

On 10/3/2022 at 4:06 AM, Kiwibrown said:

People treating this like it isn't potentially serious is dumb. It can be caused by heart disease or ischaemia, viral illness. 

... or PEDs. 

[Kiwibrown]

3 hours ago, ET80 said:

... or PEDs. 

he used to bump shoulders with Cushing, that would give anyone a boost. 

[NudeTayne]

15 minutes ago, Kiwibrown said:

he used to bump shoulders with Cushing, that would give anyone a boost. 

[Kiwibrown]

If JJ is using anything i think it would be HGH- he hasnt grown lady parts and he doesnt seem like a test user. If he has, he sure has a good chemist. 

[Broncofan]

Eh, there are a lot of health issues that pro sports ignores, but this is actually one disorder, that if it's worked up appropriately, it's perfectly fine to let the player keep playing - if he's back in a normal rhythm on his own (which Watt apparently is).

Atrial fibrillation is actually well recognized as a common arrhythmia in otherwise healthy people with no actual intrinsic heart disease, who get high sympathetic tone - whether it be a new illness (commonplace if you're unlucky enough to be sick enough to go to the ICU, but even inpatient wards this is seen frequently), or heavy exercise.   It's seen with endurance sports as well.    And while PED's can certainly make this more likely, it can happen spontaneously with athletes - in fact, it's well reported in medical literature.

The workup usually involves first ruling out new heart disease (like heart attacks, valvular disease, unrecognized defects which makes one part of the heart enlarge without the patient feeling any symptoms).  A simple battery of blood tests and an ultrasound of the heart (echocardiogram) can determine all of these must-rule-out disorders.  An EKG sometimes can point to rare conduction abnormalites (although Watt's a little old, it usually presents in teens/20's, but it's not impossible - just less likely, given his high exertion levels since college).     

Ultimately, if no cause is found, but the athlete (or patient) reports episodes that have happened before, more complex electrophysiological study (EPS) tests get done - and more often than not, they find an aberrant electrical pathway, that causes the wiring to go haywire (for lack of a better term lol).   Once identified, if such an abberant focus/pathways of electrical activity are ID'd, they often can undergo ablation, and the patient resumes a normal life, with no restrictions - including full athletics.

Here's the kicker - if Watt is back in a normal rhythm, he most likely got the first workup (echocardiogram, EKG, bloodwork at time and afterwards to rule out "silent" heart attacks <unlikely>).   If he's never had it before, no therapy is recommended, because for a one-off episodes, there are so many temporary triggers, that no long-term therapy is recommended...unless it's happened before, or the history is ominous for this (IE unexplained fainting spells, etc.).     If more episodes occur, then it's time to consider the full EP studies.   But for a first-time event, Watt's situation isn't that unusual.   

If anyone's really interested, the American College of Cardiology has a decent summary here - https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/articles/2019/08/16/08/20/atrial-fibrillation-in-competitive-athletes. 

I get with the complete mismanagement of "back injuries" and concussions / head injuries, and the complete disdain the NFL has for player safety, why ppl are skeptical.  But here, the plan appears quite sound - assuming Watt's had no previous history, and he got the appropriate screening.   The timeline of events does support that an appropriate evaluation was done.    If Watt were to stay in atrial fibrillation, though, different story - although his risk of developing stroke would be low, there would be more concern on the risks, and him needing blood thinners (although for a pro athlete, their risk is so low, even then it's usually off to EPS +/- ablation).    But given he's back in a normal heart rate, it's likely business as usual.

Edited October 6, 2022 by Broncofan