PUBLISHED 01/10/2007
Wood and colleagues were able to perform their research thanks to the recent invention of lightweight, portable tissue Doppler echocardiogram units. Earlier echo machines weighed 800 pounds apiece, not exactly great for moving them to a marathon finish line. And prior to the tissue Doppler machines, which can "see" actual cardiac muscle contraction and relaxation, earlier units could only image blood flow through the heart. Technicians had to use the blood flows to make assumptions about cardiac muscle function.
Wood's research, which has been conducted at the last 4 Boston Marathons and is scheduled to continue, also required the full cooperation of the Boston Athletic Association organizers and the runners who volunteered to be studied, about 30 a year. That was all the investigators could handle efficiently. Wood was most impressed that her team was able to identify their subjects in the finish-line chutes and guide them into the medical tent. "In the big crowds and chaos of a marathon finish area, you'd expect to lose some people," she said. "Or maybe they wouldn't finish. But we've been extremely lucky with both the marathon organizers and our subjects."
Sources
Persistent and reversible cardiac dysfunction among amateur marathon runners. (European Heart Journal, May 06)
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Myocardial injury and ventricular dysfunction related to training levels among nonelite participants in the Boston marathon. (Circulation, Nov. 06)
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
