Presentation
Knee pain on both sides after running twenty kilometres without training.
Patient Data
Subtle horizontally oriented bands of sclerosis at the proximal tibia bilaterally.
Transverse stress fractures of low signal intensity of the proximal tibia bilaterally with surrounding bone marrow edema of high signal.
Case Discussion
Stress fractures are frequently found during competitive sports or intense exercise. They result from a failure of the bone to resist and adapt to stress that is too intense and repetitive. While normally the bone is generally able to adapt to a gradual increase of effort, in some cases this adjustment is insufficient or defective secondary to underlying genetics and/or high-intensity training.
The sports most affected are running, gymnastics, basketball and aerobics. The regions most affected in runners are the tibia, metatarsal and navicular bones.
Acknowledgements: dott.ssa Eleonora Renzi