Local Runners Recruited For Heart Study

Oct. 27 - KGO (KGO) -- More than a thousand runners are expected to participate in this Sunday's Silicon Valley marathon. Some of them will be supporting a study to figure out if recreational runners are more susceptible to heart attacks. ABC7's David Louie has more from Stanford.

Running is a passion for some and a formidable challenge for others. It can also lead to a small risk of death.

Suzanne Miller, M.D., Stanford Hospital emergency department: "I've actually taken care of people who've come to the emergency department with chest pain after running a marathon, and they haven't had a heart attack, they haven't had heart problems."

Miller has recruited 50 elite and recreational runners to undergo testing to see if their hearts react the same or differently to the 26.2 mile race.

Suzanne Miller: "We're looking for markers of heart damage. We have these very sensitive tests called troponins that signal whether or not someone has had a heart cell that has died. So what we're looking at is whether heart cells are dying after running a marathon."

The volunteers will also undergo echocardiograms the day before the marathon to measure the heart's regularity.

Italy has been studying this issue over the past 26 years. According to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Italy imposed mandatory screening of all competitive athletes. By doing so they have reduced the number of heart attack deaths by 89 percent.

Nearly half of recreational runners in a previous study showed signs of heart damage after a grueling race. This study will be the first to do a one week follow-up to see if damage is temporary. Depending on the results, one outcome could be a call for pre-screening of athletes for heart risk.

Alistair Murray, runner: "It's rare where people collapse and really have serious after-effects of the marathon, but you do hear occasionally of people dying, having a heart attack. There is that. So pre-screening would certainly be good. It's better than no screening at all."

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