Italy footballer Morosini dies after collapse on pitch

[Arian]

Ex-Italy under-21 footballer Piermario Morosini has died following a suspected heart attack on the pitch, football officials say.
The midfielder was playing for Livorno in the Serie B match at Pescara when he fell to the ground in the 31st minute.
A defibrillator was used and Morosini, 25, was taken to hospital. The game was halted with other players in tears.
All league games in Italy this weekend have been called off following Morosini's death.
Morosini had been on loan to Livorno from the Serie A club Udinese.
He collapsed face down and appeared to be in convulsion. The referee's assistant drew the referee's attention and he stopped the game.
The footballer was taken to Pescara's Santo Spirito hospital by ambulance, but he could not be revived.
Last month Bolton's Fabrice Muamba was technically "dead" for 78 minutes after collapsing in an FA Cup tie.
The 24-year-old England player is now making "strong and steady improvements".
Following Muamba's collapse, attention had been drawn to the situation for athletes in Italy, which has mandatory cardiac screening for all young people engaged in organised sport.
The charity Cardiac Risk in the Young says that the Italian measures have reduced the incidence of young sudden cardiac death in Italy by 90% in the 30 years since the screening was introduced.

 

[Pooya]

so fucking sad

 

[Dr Strangemoosh]

Rest in peace.

A security vehicle was blocking the ambulance's path to the stadium and would have lost essential minutes for trained CPR.

 

[Sly]

Rip!

 

[mashdi]

Rest in peace.

A security vehicle was blocking the ambulance's path to the stadium and would have lost essential minutes for trained CPR.

More on that:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/...-morosini-collapses-during-game?newsfeed=true

"He looked at me in the eyes when he was taken into the ambulance," Pescara's general manager, Danilo Iannascoli, told Sky Italia.

Italian media reports said a car belonging to traffic police blocked the ambulance's way into the stadium and a window had to be broken so the car could be moved.

"I don't know if the ambulance was late, but I know that the entrance onto the pitch was blocked by a vehicle," Iannascoli said.

 

[Payandeh Iran]

R.i.p

 

[Niloufar]

Oh shoot..RIP..

 

[Foo]

RIP
This can't be a coincidence anymore..but what could it be? Training intensity?

 

[ME]

RIP
This can't be a coincidence anymore..but what could it be? Training intensity?

Italian cardiologists are really obcessed with sports medicine and risk of sudden death. In particular, they have very aggressive electrophysiologists in the field of sudden cardiac death and specifically in VT/VF. I can confidently say that their screening is at the higher end compared to anywhere else in the world.
The list of potential suspects is long but this is likely due to a dynamic new change such as ARVD/C, HOCM, and VT arising from acute myocarditis. Because of the intense screening, less likely causes are chanellopathies like CPVT and LQT syndromes, fast conducting accessory pathways, and MI or ischemic heart disease. Other cardiomoypathies are also less likely because he should have been otherwise symptomtic by now. Although there are entities of exercise induced cardiomyopathies, statistically speaking trainig intensity should have had little to do with causing the condition but could have triggered the final insult.

 

[kasra1930]

Italian cardiologists are really obcessed with sports medicine and risk of sudden death. In particular, they have very aggressive electrophysiologists in the field of sudden cardiac death and specifically in VT/VF. I can confidently say that their screening is at the higher end compared to anywhere else in the world.
The list of potential suspects is long but this is likely due to a dynamic new change such as ARVD/C, HOCM, and VT arising from acute myocarditis. Because of the intense screening, less likely causes are chanellopathies like CPVT and LQT syndromes, fast conducting accessory pathways, and MI or ischemic heart disease. Other cardiomoypathies are also less likely because he should have been otherwise symptomtic by now. Although there are entities of exercise induced cardiomyopathies, statistically speaking trainig intensity should have had little to do with causing the condition but could have triggered the final insult.

the most possibilty cause is either acute viral myocarditis lead to ventricular tachyarrhytmia vs anomaly of coronary arteries lead to acute heart attack or MI,there is no way you can suspect anomaly of coronary artery disease except you do,coronary angiograghy or ct-angio or catheterization........(which is in young age),although the most common cause is IHSS or its upto date term is HOCM....here in USA,they usually do history and physical exam,and if this is normal no further test warranted,..I doubt in italy,they jumped to do echocardiogram,unless they get suspicious to some cardiac structural abnormalities for example when you listen to the heat you hear some extra sounds or murmur...,then echo should be warranted especially for diagnosis of HOCM OR IHSS.....for screening test,I am sure they would not do EPS OR ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY STUDIES AND/OR ANGIOGRAPHY...unless patient has had any history of tacharrhytmia or some EKG changes consistent with wolff-parkinson white syndrome or increased qt interval.....
2)substance abuse like cocaine induced heart attack or amphetamine which are used in sportsmen,to increase their power,and heart rate,can be another cause of sudden heart attack in young athlets....
3)and finally other possibilities like,cerebral aneurysm should be ruled out....

 

[YePaDoPa]

R.I.P, that is so sad!

 

[Zob Ahan]

R.i.p.

 

[Bache Tehroon]

Is it me or this crap keeps happening more frequently as time passes? How many such deaths occurred in 50s, 60s and 70s?

 

[BehzadB]

RIP. really sad to see this happen. someone else was saying , now days the amount of energy drinks, advanced medicine ..etc, could be the cause of these sudden Cardiac arrests. as others have mentioned, I don't remember players dropping dead on the field so often back in the old days. Personally, when I hear news like this I think of two things, one is a heart condition that the doctors had missed when screening (which is very unlikely now days) and two, cocaine.

sad day for football.

 

[ME]

the most possibilty cause is either acute viral myocarditis lead to ventricular tachyarrhytmia vs anomaly of coronary arteries lead to acute heart attack or MI,there is no way you can suspect anomaly of coronary artery disease except you do,coronary angiograghy or ct-angio or catheterization........(which is in young age),although the most common cause is IHSS or its upto date term is HOCM....here in USA,they usually do history and physical exam,and if this is normal no further test warranted,..I doubt in italy,they jumped to do echocardiogram,unless they get suspicious to some cardiac structural abnormalities for example when you listen to the heat you hear some extra sounds or murmur...,then echo should be warranted especially for diagnosis of HOCM OR IHSS.....for screening test,I am sure they would not do EPS OR ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY STUDIES AND/OR ANGIOGRAPHY...unless patient has had any history of tacharrhytmia or some EKG changes consistent with wolff-parkinson white syndrome or increased qt interval.....
2)substance abuse like cocaine induced heart attack or amphetamine which are used in sportsmen,to increase their power,and heart rate,can be another cause of sudden heart attack in young athlets....
3)and finally other possibilities like,cerebral aneurysm should be ruled out....

They actually echo all soccer palyers in Italy (they have an ongoing registery of professional athletes to define normal aortic root measurements in professional athletes) as part of their screening but obviously HOCM is a dynamic disease and may manifest any time and that is why young first degree family members usually get frequent echo follow ups up to certain age. Vascular issues, thoracic or cereberal would have been reported soon after the incidence in the media but still possible. Although coronary anomaly is uncommon, it is a good candidate because obviously it is not picked up by routine screening. The only thing against it is the guy was 31 years old and many years into extreme training, maybe should have been manifested earlier. We lost a 15 year old football player kid last year to it because the peds cardiologist didn't take his minimal symptoms seriously. It was horrible.

 

[kasra1930]

Is it me or this crap keeps happening more frequently as time passes? How many such deaths occurred in 50s, 60s and 70s?

this happened few times in the past too,in 1940s,one of the Austia player had a sudden death in the field....but definitely it was not so frequent as today,the reason could be due to:
1)less substance abuse like cocaine or amphetamine(for example even in 70s,or 80s,you would not hear about SHISHEH or in another word,amphetamine overuse).see how many young generations in Iran sniff SHISHEH or amphetamine diratives!!!! on those days heroin,LSD,PCP,were very common around the world....
2)the other reason is size and numer of football players who play soccernow a days,soccer was not popular in the past as it is today,so less participants then less report....

 

[Footbalist]

R.i.p.

 

[Niloufar]

They actually echo all soccer palyers in Italy (they have an ongoing registery of professional athletes to define normal aortic root measurements in professional athletes) as part of their screening but obviously HOCM is a dynamic disease and may manifest any time and that is why young first degree family members usually get frequent echo follow ups up to certain age. Vascular issues, thoracic or cereberal would have been reported soon after the incidence in the media but still possible. Although coronary anomaly is uncommon, it is a good candidate because obviously it is not picked up by routine screening. The only thing against it is the guy was 31 years old and many years into extreme training, maybe should have been manifested earlier. We lost a 15 year old football player kid last year to it because the peds cardiologist didn't take his minimal symptoms seriously. It was horrible.

Wow..things u learn everyday.. Thanks a lot for all these info doctor!

Really sad day for football..

 

[Mahdi]

Italian cardiologists are really obcessed with sports medicine and risk of sudden death. In particular, they have very aggressive electrophysiologists in the field of sudden cardiac death and specifically in VT/VF. I can confidently say that their screening is at the higher end compared to anywhere else in the world.
The list of potential suspects is long but this is likely due to a dynamic new change such as ARVD/C, HOCM, and VT arising from acute myocarditis. Because of the intense screening, less likely causes are chanellopathies like CPVT and LQT syndromes, fast conducting accessory pathways, and MI or ischemic heart disease. Other cardiomoypathies are also less likely because he should have been otherwise symptomtic by now. Although there are entities of exercise induced cardiomyopathies, statistically speaking trainig intensity should have had little to do with causing the condition but could have triggered the final insult.

very correct and thanks for further explanations. Italy actually has the highest standards when it comes to medical checks on players. They are very thorough. There are at least 2 cases I can think of(Nwanko Kanu, Khalilou Fadiga) of players Inter signed and where heart conditions were diagnosed first upon medical tests at Inter.

Anyway, this one is also beautiful...Udinese will take care of the severly disabled sister of Morosini.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/apr/16/udinese-piermario-morosini-di-natale