Competing in Varsity Athletics After Cardiac Transplantation

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Abstract
Cardiac transplantation has become a fairly common procedure and transplant recipients do not always have to reduce their physical activity after surgery. A 22-year-old collegiate soccer player who underwent cardiac transplantation and returned to compete on an intercollegiate conference championship team less than 2 years after transplant was studied and is reported in this paper. Maximal physical assessment in a controlled laboratory test indicated that the subject's maximum oxygen uptake (JOURNAL/jcrh/04.02/00008483-198912000-00002/ENTITY_OV0312/v/2017-08-08T011858Z/r/image-pngO2max) was within the normal range for his age. However, the denervated transplanted heart would not attain the predicted maximum heart rate. Oxygen pulse was generally lower in the subject, but nearly equivalent at maximum. However, ventilation was higher than the comparison group. Maximum exertion was reached at normal, voluntary exhaustion. Results suggest that heart rate may not be an adequate method for monitoring work intensity in all cardiac transplant patients. This case also demonstrates that cardiac transplantation is not always a deterrent to participation even in intercollegiate athletics.

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