A Promising Treatment for Athletes, in Blood

[26mi235]

A Promising Treatment for Athletes, in Blood

Two..[athletes] used their own blood in an innovative injury treatment before winning the Super Bowl. At least one major league pitcher, about 20 professional soccer players and perhaps hundreds of recreational athletes have also undergone the procedure, commonly called platelet-rich plasma therapy.

I think that this might be the treatment that Matt Tegenkamp has used for a knee problem that cropped up this winter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/sp...d.html?_r=1&hp

[DrJay]

Call me a skeptic, but I wouldn't hold my breath on this one.

[gh]

see front page for link to a subsequent story which suggests it might run afoul of blood-doping rules, even though that's not what it is.

[Pego]

Call me a skeptic, but I wouldn't hold my breath on this one.

Now, there is two of us.

[eldrick]

there appear to be 2 factors here :

1) IGF-1 which is a type of growth-hormone

2) time before which the plasma is re-injected into joint/tendon

if you draw off any blood-product, give it more than a coupla weeks & the body will have replenished the blood/IGF-1 & therefore re-injecting the IGF-1 will increase the total body amount & therefore gives a theoretical doping advantage

if this therapy is going to get the go-ahead by authorities, there will have to be a time-limit within which it must be re-injected - i'd say no more than a week ( not enough time for body to make substantial new amounts ) - more than a week & it shoud be disallowed

[26mi235]

there appear to be 2 factors here :

1) IGF-1 which is a type of growth-hormone

2) time before which the plasma is re-injected into joint/tendon

if you draw off any blood-product, give it more than a couple of weeks & the body will have replenished the blood/IGF-1 & therefore re-injecting the IGF-1 will increase the total body amount & therefore gives a theoretical doping advantage

if this therapy is going to get the go-ahead by authorities, there will have to be a time-limit within which it must be re-injected - i'd say no more than a week (not enough time for body to make substantial new amounts) - more than a week & it should be disallowed

I think that the re-injection is semi-immediate (i.e., it might be as short as minutes and I think that it is not held several weeks for the blood supply to expand). The blood is broken up into constituents and then re-injected in the a single procedure.

[guru]

http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... hp?t=34262

[gh]

I'm sure the testers will be ecstatic if this turns out to be a pig in a poke. Imagine--because it might show up in blood-doping testing--having to tell athletes that clean & natural, quick-recovery-from-injury process that was available to the general public was closed to them.