Department of Radiology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Clinician Scientist Program, Berlin Institute of Health at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
PLoS One. 2023 Nov 29;18(11):e0294693. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294693. eCollection 2023.
Muscular overuse injuries are a common health issue in elite athletes. Changes in the muscular microenvironment can be depicted by Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI). We hypothesize that the biomechanics of different stroke typologies plays a role in muscle injury and tested our hypothesis by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination of the lumbar spine muscles of adolescent rowers utilizing DTI.
Twenty-two male elite rowers (12 sweep, 10 scull rowers) with a mean age of 15.8 ± 1.2 years underwent 3-Tesla MRI of the lumbar spine 6 hours after cessation of training. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and fractional anisotropy (FA) were calculated for the erector spinae and multifidus muscle. Student's t-test was used to test differences of DTI parameters between sweep and scull rowers and a Pearson correlation was utilized to correlate the parameters to training volume.
ADC values in the erector spinae and multifidus muscle were significantly higher (p = 0.039) and FA values significantly lower (p < 0.001) in sweep rowers compared to scull rowers. There was no significant association between DTI parameters and training volume (r ≤ -0.459, p ≥ 0.074).
Our DTI results show that lumbar spine muscle diffusivity is higher in sweep rowers than in scull rowers. Altered muscle diffusivity is suggestive of microscopic tissue disruption and might be attributable to biomechanical differences between stroke typologies.
肌肉过度使用损伤是精英运动员常见的健康问题。弥散张量成像（DTI）可以描绘肌肉微环境的变化。我们假设不同划桨类型的生物力学在肌肉损伤中起作用，并通过对青少年赛艇运动员腰椎肌肉进行磁共振成像（MRI）检查，利用 DTI 检验了我们的假设。
22 名男性精英赛艇运动员（12 名划桨运动员，10 名单桨运动员），平均年龄为 15.8±1.2 岁，在训练结束后 6 小时接受了 3-Tesla 腰椎 MRI 检查。计算竖脊肌和多裂肌的表观扩散系数（ADC）和各向异性分数（FA）。使用学生 t 检验比较划桨和单桨运动员的 DTI 参数差异，利用 Pearson 相关性将参数与训练量相关联。
与单桨运动员相比，划桨运动员的竖脊肌和多裂肌 ADC 值明显更高（p=0.039），FA 值明显更低（p<0.001）。DTI 参数与训练量之间无显著相关性（r≤-0.459，p≥0.074）。
我们的 DTI 结果表明，划桨运动员的腰椎肌肉弥散度高于单桨运动员。肌肉弥散度的改变提示微观组织破坏，可能归因于划桨类型的生物力学差异。
