Re: Kikken Randal gets DVT

romie@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
See www.fasterskier.com for Kikkan's blog and Anchorage Daily News
article on her medical condition.

Something in the newspaper article, referring particularly to the
effects of long-distance travel, that I didn't know:

"Some endurance athletes are at particular DVT risk because they have a
low resting heart rate. That means the blood flow to large muscles is
reduced and may be more prone to clot."

rm


Interesting comment in the article. Having a lower resting heart rate should not increase your risk of DVT at all. The predominant reason a trained athlete's heart rate is lower than say, mine :), is that they have a larger stroke volume, and when sitting at rest, their cardiac output (blood flow per unit time) is the same as mine would be with a higher heart rate but lower stroke volume.

The venous system in the muscles don't "know" what your heart rate is. They only "know" what the resulting (non-pulsatile) blood flow per unit time is. For a given cardiac output, vasomotor tone state, and workload/exercise state (in this case sitting at rest), the blood flow through the deep veins of the leg would be the same, irrespective of the heart rate.

So having a low resting heart rate does not mean you would have lower flow through the leg veins, more stasis, or a greater risk of developing DVT than the average camper. (If your heart rate's low because you're on say, beta-blockers, then it's a different story... but let's not go there...)

Clinically, we certainly don't tend to see an over-representation of highly trained athletes amongst those in the same age group who suffer DVTs. Epidemiologically, it is not a significant independent indicator of risk for DVT.

Cheers,
Chris

telemark@xxxxxxxxxx

.

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