Insights from 2016 Olympics: MRI study finds track and field athletes most likely to injure pelvis
Physicians performed 869 radiological exams in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the 2016 Summer Olympics, finding track and field athletes were the most prone to pelvic muscle injuries of any Olympians, researchers have reported in the European Journal of Radiology.
“Acute and chronic injuries of the hip and groin are common sports injuries in high-level competitive athletes and in recreational sports, and they can disrupt performance or affect return to play if not diagnosed or treated in a timely fashion,” a team led by Rafael Heiss, MD, wrote in the journal. “Knowledge about such injuries sustained in or around large competitive events is significant.”
Though these injuries and similar repetitive traumas are frequent in pro athletes, Heiss, with the radiology department at University Hospital Erlangen in Erlangen, Germany, said detailed data on hip and pelvic injuries are lacking. In an attempt to broaden the epidemiology of these injuries and better understand their nature, Heiss and his co-authors retrospectively analyzed dozens of MRIs acquired during the 2016 Games.
“Detailed description of such highly selected cohorts based on major sport events may be helpful for determining which high-risk sports tend to produce specific injuries, including those to the pelvis and hips,” the researchers wrote. “Acute injuries have been shown to be more common during competition than practice, and analysis of acute injuries that occur during major sports events may be useful for understanding the nature of competitive injuries.”
Heiss et al. evaluated all pelvic MRIs that were acquired for suspected injury during the Games using National Olympic Committee data, and all diagnostic imaging was performed through the Olympic Village Polyclinic using 1.5T and 3T MR scanners.
Of 11,274 athletes who participated in the Summer Olympics and 1,101 injuries recorded during the same period, medical staff performed 40 pelvic MRIs for suspected injuries, the authors said. Ninety-two percent of scans resulted in at least one abnormal finding, nearly half of which were deemed to be pre-existing conditions.
Pre-existing injuries were most commonly seen in ball-sports athletes, Heiss and colleagues wrote. The same demographic saw the majority of chronic changes identified at the symphysis region. On the other hand, track and field athletes recorded the highest number of acute and subacute injuries, comprising 44 percent of all pelvic injuries.
Myofascial and myotendinous muscle injuries were the most common acute injuries in the study sample, the authors said, followed by tendon injuries. Of track and field athletes’ largely acute and subacute injuries, 47 percent were muscle injuries, with the gluteus maximus most commonly affected.
“Imaging is a very important diagnostic instrument in the workup of athletes with hip pain, as the clinical presentation of hip and groin pain is often non-specific,” Heiss et al. wrote. “This requires a thorough evaluation of the hip joint itself on MRIs, but the surrounding soft tissues are equally important.”
Since MRI findings are common in asymptomatic athletes, the researchers said it’s “necessary to be cautious” when interpreting the study’s findings. They were also unable to compare their results to previous Olympic data, because no such specific evaluations have taken place before.
“Our results may help in planning medical support for future large-scale sports events and may potentially aid in developing preventive efforts before and during competition,” Heiss and co-authors said. “MRI has become an important tool for sports medicine physicians attending major events who must make critical decisions regarding treatment and return to play.”
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.