Available online 2 August 2022

TUS is a cost-effective assessment tool for the diagnosis of bone stress injuries.

Tibial stress injuries were more frequent in running disciplines.

The current study does not intent to replace MRI for detection of bone stress injuries.

Tibial stress injuries are challenging in terms of early diagnosis, management strategy, and safe return-to-play. In the present study, pain production associated with the application of therapeutic ultrasound (TUS) was used as a primary diagnostic tool to assess tibial bone stress injuries, and the sensitivity of this procedure was compared with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

The study was designed as a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data on tibial bone stress injuries in elite Track and field athletes attending the National Track and Field Athletics Centre in Thessaloniki, Greece, in the period 1995–2007. All patients underwent evaluation by TUS, and the sensitivity of the procedure was compared with MRI.

Four of 29 athletes showed a positive TUS examination for stress injury while MRI showed normal findings. Additionally, 5 athletes evidenced MRI findings typical of a tibial bone stress injury, while TUS evaluation was negative. Using MRI as the standard, TUS displayed a sensitivity of 79.2%.

Therapeutic ultrasound is a reproducible modality with satisfactory reliability and sensitivity related to MRI, and could represent a useful tool for clinicians to primarily assess suspected tibial bone stress injuries in high qualification Track and Field athletes.

Therapeutic ultrasound

Athletes

Tibia

Bone stress injuries

Reliability

© 2022 Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (Scottish charity number SC005317) and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.