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Five Russian Hockey league players found to have heart defects

That is out of 49 that were tested. From AP-

MOSCOW — Heart defects have been found in five players in the Russian ice hockey league since the death of rising star Alexei Cherepanov, an official said Wednesday.

Russia’s Continental Hockey League ordered the tests after Cherepanov, 19, collapsed and died last month from a heart condition while playing for his club Avangard.

Cherepanov was a New York Rangers draft pick.

Russian league spokesman Marat Safin said 49 players have undergone testing with their clubs, and five turned out to have problems.

He said that figure could rise because 18 players are still to be checked. Results from the total sample of 67 players are expected Friday.

Safin said there was no reason to suspect any form of drug abuse or doping among the players.

The rate of players with heart defects is hardly shattering and I’ll tell you why. I had aortic valve replacement surgery on August 13th of this year. That due to my having a bicuspid heart valve, and the regurgitation as a result of it and a heart aneurysm I also had, caused me to become short of breath and in need of hospitalization. A regular human heart is tricuspid, people with bicuspid valves is about 2%. There are other heart defects besides having a bicuspid valve. One in 10 people having some kind of heart defect just doesn’t surprise me anymore.

 
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