Health

Cardiologists cast doubt on claims that Russian figure skater’s drug test was contaminated by her grandfather’s drug


The latest revelations about Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva’s the doping case raises more questions about the substances found in her sample — and why why a 15-year-old might have failed a drug test. TIME asked leading experts to help understand the claims, including no observating women’s figure skating competition at the Beijing Olympics and cast a larger pall through sports.

At a hearing held by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Sunday, anti-doping authorities revealed that Valieva had tested positive for three heart medications, one of which It is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency as a performance-enhancing drug.
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In addition to trimetazidine (TMZ), a banned substance, New York Times report that Valieva’s sample also contained hypoxen and L-carnatine, a supplement. All three are used for angina patients, to improve blood flow and enhance the function of the heart when it lacks oxygen.

When she submitted a sample for testing in December, Valieva announced that she was taking hypoxen and L-carnatine, along with another compound, supradyn, an immune-boosting supplement, according to the documents. whether to be considered by Times. All three substances are allowed to be used.

To explain the presence of the banned drug, Valieva’s lawyer TMZ argued that she had been “infected” with the drug, possibly through contact with her grandfather, who appeared via video to say that he takes medicine. TMZ is prescribed to treat angina, because it can help increase blood flow to the heart and make it work more efficiently. It is not approved in the United States, but is approved by the European Medicines Agency and other regulatory bodies.

READ MORE: Kamila Valieva Is Allowed Skating. Her war on drug testing has only just begun

Russian newspaper Pravda reported that Valieva’s attorneys argued during the hearing, “There could be completely different ways for it to get into her body. For example, grandfather drank something from a glass, the salvia came in, the glass was somehow later used by a track athlete. Or the drug lays down on some surface, the trace remains, the drug lies on this surface, which the athlete then drinks.”

Can the drug pass easily from one person to another, and if so, is it present in the recipient’s urine sample, as Valieva’s attorney claims? Dr Steven Nissen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, said: ‘It reminds me of kids I used to know who said they got venereal disease from the toilet seat.

Nissen says he’s not familiar with the sensitivity of the tests, a scientific measurement process, being used by the WADA lab, but says testing positive for a substance by taking it orally glass with someone who is drinking it is “very far away”.

“It’s hard to be definitive without testing [test] sensitive, but it seems very, very unlikely,” he said.

Valieva’s attorney also claims she may have been exposed to the drug on the surface and then somehow ingested it. “I see no evidence that it is absorbed through the skin,” said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, president of the American Heart Association and chair of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “. He admitted he did not know how much drug had been detected in the athlete’s sample, which would indicate whether a brief exposure to a small amount of the drug could explain her positive result. Are not.

Lloyd-Jones also points out that patients must take TMZ three times a day, as it is metabolized and eliminated by the body relatively quickly. Taken in approved doses, peak blood concentrations are reached in two to six hours, and the majority is eliminated within 24 hours. He said: “It seems unbelievable that a little on her glasses or on her skin would result in a positive test unless it happened right before she provided the sample. “One can infer that either the exposure was very recent, very shortly before her testing, or that she had more long-term exposure.”

Ideally, a performance-enhancing drug with similar features. “Performance enhancing compounds ideally go in to improve performance, then exit without leaving a trace,” says Lloyd-Jones.

READ MORE: Athletes lost to Kamila Valieva and Russia’s doping controversy

While TMZ is not available in the US, Nissen said a similar drug, ranolazine, has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The drug also converts the energy used by heart cells from fatty acids into glucose, more efficiently. “That’s why it works for angina,” says Nissen. “It allows people to do more with less blood flow. Conceivably for an athlete it would have similar benefits and would make the heart work more efficiently and give them a slight edge. “

This metabolic pathway also leads to less accumulation of lactic acid, which can cause muscle fatigue, says Lloyd-Jones. “There are data from small trials in patients with heart failure that show that the heart works better for people with pump failure,” he said. “But whether that translates to the same benefit in a young, healthy person – I don’t think we know.”

The consequences of taking these compounds while younger are also unknown. “This is certainly worrisome, especially in a young person whose body is still developing,” says Lloyd-Jones. “We really don’t understand the long-term effects of changing someone’s physiology at this age.”

While the Court of Arbitration for Sport determined Valieva could compete in Beijing, her doping violation case remains unresolved, pending further investigation. That means the gold medals she and her teammates won in the team event and any medals she won in the women’s event could be forfeited if anti-doping officials conclude that she doped and competed with an unfair advantage.

That would revolve around additional testing of a second sample, provided from the same urine as her first sample, to be analyzed to confirm a positive result from the first sample.



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