This position paper provides a comprehensive guide for optimal follow-up of patients with acute pulmonary embolism (PE), covering multiple relevant aspects of patient counselling. It serves as a... Show moreThis position paper provides a comprehensive guide for optimal follow-up of patients with acute pulmonary embolism (PE), covering multiple relevant aspects of patient counselling. It serves as a practical guide to treating patients with acute PE complementary to the formal 2019 European Society of Cardiology guidelines developed with the European Respiratory Society. We propose a holistic approach considering the whole spectrum of serious adverse events that patients with acute PE may encounter on the short and long run. We underline the relevance of assessment of modifiable risk factors for bleeding, of acquired thrombophilia and limited cancer screening (unprovoked PE) as well as a dedicated surveillance for the potential development of chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension as part of routine practice; routine testing for genetic thrombophilia should be avoided. We advocate the use of outcome measures for functional outcome and quality of life to quantify the impact of the PE diagnosis and identify patients with the post-PE syndrome early. Counselling patients on maintaining a healthy lifestyle mitigates the risk of the post-PE syndrome and improves cardiovascular prognosis. Therefore, we consider it important to discuss when and how to resume sporting activities soon after diagnosing PE. Additional patient-relevant topics that require Focused counselling are travel and birth control. Show less
The making of sacrifices seems part and parcel of any elite sportsperson’s life. Remarkably, the insights that we find in the current literature in social sport studies are not able to make sense... Show moreThe making of sacrifices seems part and parcel of any elite sportsperson’s life. Remarkably, the insights that we find in the current literature in social sport studies are not able to make sense of the references to sacrifice in the data that emerged in the context of this study on the social significance of elite women’s football. The thesis that I put forward is that the existing Marxist, cultural studies and Foucauldian poststructuralist frameworks that we find in the field of social sport studies must be supplemented by the theory of play inherited from Johan Huizinga, Eugen Fink and Hans-Georg Gadamer for both conceptual and ethical reasons. I argue that the theory of play allows us first of all to make sense of the player’s experience of sacrifice. More precisely, understood as an independent, irreducible structure of experience, play allow us to make sense of the women’s football players’ experiences of sacrifice in a way that is compatible and complimentary to those insights of Marxism, cultural studies and Foucauldian poststructuralism, which remain indispensable. Secondly, the theory of play makes visible that the existing frameworks miss important insights in theorizing the subject, and, by extension, brings forth a notion of freedom and resistance that is currently lacking in the field of social sport studies. ‘Lacking’, as we cannot find these notions in the field of social sport studies, but also ‘lacking’ because the field of study is in need of alternative ways to think about freedom and resistance. This thesis thus contains a systematic point, namely our discovery that “players play”, that their experience cannot be understood without an account of play as such, alongside an analysis of what that means; and a methodological point, namely that in order to take into consideration that players play, we need a new method, which I describe as a feminist playology. The prefix feminist refers to the commitment of this method to understand sport as a gendered activity. Show less
Heidbuchel, H.; Arbelo, E.; D'Ascenzi, F.; Borjesson, M.; Boveda, S.; Castelletti, S.; ... ; Corrado, D. 2021
This paper belongs to a series of recommendation documents for participation in leisure-time physical activity and competitive sports by the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC).... Show moreThis paper belongs to a series of recommendation documents for participation in leisure-time physical activity and competitive sports by the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC). Together with an accompanying paper on supraventricular arrhythmias, this second text deals specifically with those participants in whom some form of ventricular rhythm disorder is documented, who are diagnosed with an inherited arrhythmogenic condition, and/or who have an implanted pacemaker or cardioverter defibrillator. A companion text on recommendations in athletes with supraventricular arrhythmias is published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. Since both texts focus on arrhythmias, they are the result of a collaboration between EAPC and the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA). The documents provide a framework for evaluating eligibility to perform sports, based on three elements, i.e. the prognostic risk of the arrhythmias when performing sports, the symptomatic impact of arrhythmias while performing sports, and the potential progression of underlying structural problems as the result of sports. Show less
Using my own experience as a sports administrator, I describe and analyse the organisational culture of West African sports. As a cultural anthropologist and draughts player, I have been President... Show moreUsing my own experience as a sports administrator, I describe and analyse the organisational culture of West African sports. As a cultural anthropologist and draughts player, I have been President of the F‚d‚ration Mondiale du Jeu de Dames for eleven years, followed by four years as Executive Vice-President of the Conf‚d‚ration Africaine du Jeu de Dames. Using a series of first hand cases, five major principles of 'management culture' or 'board-room culture' are discerned and analysed that seem to inform the way power is handled in West African sports. These are: personal presence, the primacy of the official, the importance of board positions, the personalisation of power and finally the use of the past to legitimise the present. In all of them, the small world of draughts offers an insider's view of the relationship between notions of power, the politicisation of sports and the processes of neo-patrimonialism that inform African politics more generally. The article ends with some thoughts on the cultural specificity of these processes in West Africa and on the position of sports in the wider African society. I have been President of the F‚d‚ration Mondiale du Jeu de Dames for eleven years, followed by four years as Executive Vice-President of the Conf‚d‚ration Africaine du Jeu de Dames. Using a series of first hand cases, five major principles of 'management culture' or 'board-room culture'are discerned and analysed that seem to inform the way power is handled in West African sports. These are: personal presence, the primacy of the official, the importance of board positions, the personalisation of power and finally the use of the past to legitimise the present. In all of them, the small world of draughts offers an insider's view of the relationship between notions of power, the politicisation of sports and the processes of neo-patrimonialism that inform African politics more generally. The article ends with some thoughts on the cultural specificity of these processes in West Africa and on the position of sports in the wider African society. Show less
