Dilated Aorta and baseball pitchers

My 16 yr old son had a stent placed via catherter in his descending aorta to fix a coartation (restriction).  He has also been diagnosed with a "mildly" dilated ascending aorta and bicuspid aortic valve (with a "trivial" gradient).  One month after the stent procedure, he had a cardiac and head MRI which found nothing unusual.  We await a stress test which will occur ~3 months out from the procedure, which we hope will allow him to return to competitive baseball.  Sory, but I do not have a measurement on the dilated aorta at this time.

The cardiologist expects to release him to competition based on baseball's location in the "sports classification" table (Figure 2 in the article JACC, 2005, Vol 45, No. 8, pp1364-7).  Baseball is judged to have a low "static component" and moderate "dynamic component".  Patients with dilated aortas are restricted from high "static component" sports like weightlifting, skiiing, boxing etc. that build significant muscle.

One of the positions my son plays is pitcher, and my question concerns his return to competitive pitching.  The position of pitcher (and that of *catcher*) are unique to baseball for the repetitive use of core and leg strength to perform at a high level, and thus this activity builds muscle in these areas.  For this reason I suspect that pitching should be graded differently than the generic sport of baseball in the "sports classification" table.  And that is my question: how should the specific position of baseball pitcher be classified within the "static" and "dynamic" components of the "sports classification" table?  Can my son return safely to being a pitcher?

[ed34]

You may want to post this in the expert forum, but from what I understand, the static/dynamic elements are to do with the oxygen demands and extra work expected of the left ventricle as a consequence.
If you was asking about your Son being an olympic rower, or cyclist, then I think I would question the bracket he has been assessed as. But baseball pitching, is that not a pitch/rest/pitch/rest type activity? I'm in the UK but the baseball I've seen on tv here seems to show a pitcher having small breaks, he doesn't pitch one ball straight after the other.
As I said though, you may want to ask an expert, but my opinion would be that it isn't a load on the left ventricle that I would be concerned about. I think swinging the bat and running would be more energy demanding and more load on the heart.

[ken567]

Thanks ed34 for the advice.  I posted it in one f the 'expert' forums.

I tend to agree with your analysis.  But our cardiologist seems adament against muscle building.  And of all the baseball positions, pitching will tend to be the better muscle-builder, in the legs and back....even though there are pauses between pitches.  Despite the between-pitch pauses, competitive basball pitiching for more than a couple of innings is physically demanding, requiring a good bit of conditioned stamina in the core and legs.