Edward Frazier, a peace officer with the Department of Corrections, had a presumptive (L.C. 3212.1 0) industrial heart trouble with diagnosed hypertensive heart disease accompanied by mild left ventricular hypertrophy.
The AME, Dr. Ng, provided an analysis that in his opinion that under the American Medical Association Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, Fifth Edition,Table 4-2, (Criteria for Rating Permanent Impairment Due To Hypertensive Cardiovascular Disease AMA 5lh edition) would require a finding that he has a 30% Whole Person Impairment. l
However, the AME was of the opinion that this WPI while appropriate is not an accurate representation of the injured worker’s impairment. Doctor Ng referred to the new AMA Guides 6th Edition as a “standard text or recent research data” to support his conclusion that 30%WPI was too high. He concluded the writers of this recent publication decided that the 30% WPI was too high for asymptomatic mild ventricular hypertrophy. The 6th edition he states shows that for a gentleman with the same mild left ventricular hypertrophy an impairment of 23% WPI is recommended. He concludes that the authors of the AMA guides sixth edition have recognized the accuracy problem (in the 5th edition) and reduced the whole person impairment to a rating of 24% for left ventricular hypertrophy. By inference it is his clinical judgment this lower WPI is more accurate.
In conclusion the AME chose 24% as the most accurate description of this injured workers impairment. This percentage was a combination of his consideration of the analysis of the writers of the AMA 6th edition, his clinical judgment as well as his analogizing with the Coumadin paragraph 9.6C of the AMA 5th edition which has a lower impairment for asymptomatic conditions with serious health risks.
The 24% impairment after the formal rating resulted in a permanent partial disability of 44% which was awarded by the WCJ.
The WCAB denied reconsideration in the panel decision of Edward Frazier v State of California, CDCR – Correctional Training Facility.