Shellock F G, Deutsch A L, Mink J H, Kerr R
Tower Musculoskeletal Imaging Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048.
AJR Am J Roentgenol. 1991 Dec;157(6):1239-41. doi: 10.2214/ajr.157.6.1950873.
Excessive repetitive musculoskeletal loads and stresses associated with intense physical activity may lead to deterioration of the menisci of the knee. Therefore, MR imaging was performed on the knees of 23 asymptomatic marathon runners (eight men, 15 women; average age, 40 years; average number of years training, 10; average training distance per week, 41 miles) to determine the prevalence of meniscal signal abnormalities. None of the runners had previous knee injuries or surgery and each of them regularly competes in 26-mile, 50-mile, or 100-mile marathon races. T1-weighted coronal MR images and proton density-weighted and T2-weighted sagittal images were obtained with a 1.5-T MR system and a transmit/receive extremity coil. The medial and lateral menisci were divided into four portions, or horns, and a total of 92 horns were evaluated (i.e., four horns per knee: medial posterior, medial anterior, lateral posterior, and lateral anterior). Two meniscal horns (2%) had grade 3 signal (grade 3 indicates a meniscal tear), 12 (13%) had grade 2 signal, 29 (32%) had grade 1 signal (grades 1 and 2 are indicative of meniscal degeneration), and 49 (53%) had grade 0 signal (grade 0 is normal). Overall, the prevalence of meniscal tears was 9% (two meniscal tears found in 23 runners). This is lower than the prevalence of MR signal abnormalities indicative of meniscal tears reported for asymptomatic, nonrunner athletes (20% of 20 athletes) and for asymptomatic nonathletes (16% of 74 subjects). Fifty-three percent of the meniscal horns of the nonrunner athletes had grade 1 or 2 signal, indicative of meniscal degeneration. Our results indicate that the prevalence of meniscal tears in marathon runners is no higher than the prevalence reported for sedentary persons, and the runners have the same amount of meniscal degeneration as do nonrunner athletes.
与高强度体育活动相关的过度重复性肌肉骨骼负荷和压力可能会导致膝关节半月板退变。因此，对23名无症状马拉松运动员（8名男性，15名女性；平均年龄40岁；平均训练年限10年；每周平均训练距离41英里）的膝关节进行磁共振成像（MR成像），以确定半月板信号异常的发生率。这些运动员既往均无膝关节损伤或手术史，且每人都定期参加26英里、50英里或100英里的马拉松比赛。使用1.5-T MR系统和发射/接收肢体线圈获取T1加权冠状位MR图像以及质子密度加权和T2加权矢状位图像。内侧和外侧半月板被分为四个部分，即角，共评估了92个角（即每个膝关节四个角：内侧后角、内侧前角、外侧后角和外侧前角）。两个半月板角（2%）有3级信号（3级表示半月板撕裂），12个（13%）有2级信号，29个（32%）有1级信号（1级和2级表示半月板退变），49个（53%）有0级信号（0级为正常）。总体而言，半月板撕裂的发生率为9%（23名运动员中发现两处半月板撕裂）。这低于无症状非跑步运动员（20名运动员中的20%）和无症状非运动员（74名受试者中的16%）中报告的提示半月板撕裂的MR信号异常发生率。非跑步运动员的半月板角中有53%有1级或2级信号，提示半月板退变。我们的结果表明，马拉松运动员半月板撕裂的发生率并不高于久坐人群报告的发生率，并且这些运动员的半月板退变程度与非跑步运动员相同。
