Keywords:
Athletic injuries, Diagnostic procedure, MR, Musculoskeletal system
Authors:
A. Castrillo1, J. J. Fondevila2, B. Canteli3, A. Urresola Olabarrieta1, A. I. Ezquerro2, I. Aguirregoicoa4; 1Bilbao/ES, 2Barakaldo/ES, 3Bilbao, VIZCAYA/ES, 4Basauri Vizcaya /ES
DOI:
10.1594/essr2013/P-0047
Conclusion
1.
Tibial stress injury is a spectrum of osseus abnormalities caused by chronic stress on healthy bone.
2.
MR imaging allows depiction of edema.
The most frequent imaging finding is the periosteal edema,
which is a useful marker for stress injury.
Also usually bone marrow edema may be seen.
The presence of cortical injury is easily revealed on T2W and STIR sequences.
3.
So nowadays,
MRI is the gold standard technique,
being a very sensitive tool for detecting edema.
4.
But MRI´s low specifity requires clinical support: the diagnoses of tibial stress injury,
also known as “shin splints”,
depends on both imaging findings and clinical features.
5.
When anterior lower leg pain is reported,
the signal alterations around the mentioned structures (muscles,
soft-tissue,
periosteal region,
cortical and bone marrow) may lead the radiologist to this diagnosis.