Sickle Cell Trait and Fatal Rhabdomyolysis Medscape

Description: We report the athletic, the clinical, and the pathological details of a case of fatal rhabdomyolysis during training in a college football player with sickle cell trait (SCT) who collapsed minutes after running 16 successive sprints of 100 yd each.
Counting this case, at least 15 college football players with SCT have died from complications of exertional sickling, as have younger football players and other athletes. In SCT, maximal, sustained exercise evokes four forces that can foster sickling: hypoxemia, acidosis, hyperthermia, and red cell dehydration. The setting, the clinical and laboratory features, and the clinicopathological correlation here suggest that the fulminant rhabdomyolysis and its fatal sequelae were from exertional sickling. These data suggest that screening and simple precautions for SCT may be warranted to prevent tragedies like this and enable all athletes with SCT to thrive in their sports.
Sickle Cell Trait and Fatal Rhabdomyolysis in Football Training: A Case Study Mary L. Anzalone; Valerie S. Green; Maximillian Buja; Luis A. Sanchez; Rajesh I. Harrykissoon; E. Randy Eichner Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise®. 2010;42(1):3-7. Full text