Diagnosis: Muscle-Bound

[Chi-town]

From Sunday's NY Times Magazine -- a 23-year old had a pulmonary embolism (caused by a blood clot that ends up in the lungs). Turns out his "hypertrophied muscles" were cutting off circulation from the heart to the shoulders and arms. Here are the excerpts of immediate interest:

When the patient undressed for the exam, Duffy was immediately struck by the highly developed muscles of his upper body. “He looked like one of those young men in a men’s fitness magazine,” he told me later.

blah blah blah...diagnosis...blah blah blah...treatment...blah.

“Seeing that extraordinary musculature reminded me of this unusual anatomical abnormality, and the test, of course, I learned many years ago,” Duffy recalled when I spoke to him recently.

Unfortunately, there were no accompanying pictures of the patient

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/ma...agnosis.t.html (registration required)

[DaBigGuy1]

But a very interesting article nonetheless. Goes to show that the right doctor DOES make a difference, otherwise this guy would have been on medication possibly the rest of his life and given up his love of lifting and sports.

Ron

[Bull]

It's not that unusual of a syndrome, and it has nothing to do with "hypertrophied" muscles, as any massage therapist can explain. This is another example of how the media will jump on any excuse to rag on bodybuilding.

[dallasmsl]

Sounds like the root cause is that infamous "Intelligent Design" flaw.

Nothing much we can do about that! I'm glad the young teacher was able to get the right medical attention though.