Red Sox manager Terry Francona hospitalized
“Boston manager Terry Francona was taken to a hospital Wednesday with tightness in his chest, and was expected to miss the Red SoxÂ’s afternoon game against the Yankees.

Francona, who turns 46 on April 22, said all morning he was not feeling well, according to general manager Theo Epstein. Francona was taken by ambulance to New York Weill-Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan.”

Sounds like a CP, ROMI (chest pain, rule out MI). He will likely have an EKG as well as blood tests looking at the cardiac enzymes (to determine if he had any ischemic heart damage). If the first set is negative, he’ll probably stay in a chest pain observation unit to ensure the next set is negative 8 hours later. A stress test would then be done to see if this is caused by coronary artery disease.

Complicating the picture is his history of pulmonary emboli:

Ten days after having knee surgery in 2002, he was in Seattle interviewing for the MarinersÂ’ managing job when he experienced severe chest pains.

Upon his return home, Francona said, doctors discovered a blood clot had gone to his lungs. He was given blood thinners and the problem was thought to be under control, but complications developed.

Normally after the first case of pulmonary emboli, blood-thinning therapy (i.e. coumadin) would be instituted for 3 to 6 months. If he is currently on coumadin, then the likelihood of recurrent PE is low. In any case, I would also investigate the possibility of recurrent PE, likely with a CT pulmonary angiogram.

Update:
So far, they haven’t released test results. It appears he was already on coumadin, which makes a clot less likely.

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