[The role of echotomography in sports traumatology of the lower extremity].

Sonography, which is commonly used in the evaluation of muscular traumas following exercise, quite often provides the radiologist with normal findings. One hundred and fifty-nine athletes were considered (170 US examinations), and the clinical diagnoses the patients had been referred for were compared with US findings: the pathologic condition was confirmed in 59% of the cases, while the extant 41% had normal findings. The highest percentage of positive findings was observed in the Achilles tendon region (75%), while the figure dropped to 38% in the thigh. In the latter location, muscular ruptures were confirmed in 69% of the cases, versus 17% in case of muscular distraction. As for the Achilles tendon, pathologic conditions both along the axis and in the insertion of the tendon were confirmed in 20% of the cases, but clinical accuracy was improved by US in 47% and 20% of the patients, respectively, and the diagnosis was changed in 10% and 20% of the cases, respectively. Therefore, clinical accuracy was demonstrated to depend on the pathologic condition as well as on the anatomical region involved.