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
Purpose
Osseus abnormalities are very common in response to an abnormal chronic repetitive stress when applied in healthy bone.
That is known as bone stress injury and represents a wide spectrum of diseases,
among which is tibial stress injury,
also known as “shin splints”.
This type of lesions are common in athletes (about 10 % of injuries seen in sports medicine) affecting the tibia,
tarsal bones,
metatarsals,
femur and fibula,
in order of decreasing frequency,
but also occurs in non-athlete people.
The repetitive stress causes accelerated bone remodeling and may lead to stress fracture.
A lot of imaging techniques have been described in the literature including plain radiograph,
radionuclide bone scanning,
CT and MRI.
Nowadays,
MRI has become the choice imaging modality for evaluating patients when this pathology is suspected,
because can also identify injuries affecting muscles and tendons of the lower extremities.
The pathogenesis of stress lesions is poorly understood.
Daily activity produces a basic bone remodeling: osteoclastic bone resorption,
which is the first body's stress response.
When this response is not balanced and the bone replacement is not sufficient,
the bone becomes a weak structure,
on which muscular forces act constantly,
increasing the risk of little cracks and then fractures.
CT and MRI imaging findings of stress fractures have been described by some authors,
but the early image changes in bone stress injuries are much less known.
So we want to describe the MRI features in patients with anterior tibial pain,
known as “shin splints”.