MRI analysis of and factors related to knee injuries in amateur marathon runners

Yiying Shen; Wanzhen Yao; Yi Huang; Lingxiao Ye; Jie Liu; Mengxiao Liu; Jianping Ding; Yanjing Zhang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0306257

MRI analysis of and factors related to knee injuries in amateur marathon runners

PLoS One. 2024 Jul 9;19(7):e0306257. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0306257. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Yiying Shen¹, Wanzhen Yao², Yi Huang², Lingxiao Ye², Jie Liu², Mengxiao Liu³, Jianping Ding², Yanjing Zhang²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, Hangzhou Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
² Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
³ MR scientific Marketing, Diagnostic Imaging, Siemens Healthineers Ltd, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Background: Marathons are the most challenging form of running, and amateur athletes may be more prone to injury due to a lack of professional knowledge and instruction in running.

Purpose: To analyze the MRI manifestations of and factors related to knee injuries in amateur marathon runners.

Subjects: Data were collected from a hospital database of 105 qualified amateur marathon athletes (65 males,40 females), between May 2018 and December 2021.

Field strength/sequence: 1.5T MR: sagittal fs-PDWI, sagittal T1WI and sagittal 3D-DESS sequence.

Assessment: The MRI manifestations of knee joint injury were analyzed and evaluated by two radiologists.

Statistical tests: The inter-observer agreement on MRI readings was analyzed using the kappa coefficient, and binary logistic regression analysis was employed to identify factors associated with knee injuries.

Results: The overall prevalence of knee cartilage lesions, meniscus lesions and bone marrow edema among amateur marathon runners was 45.7%, 72.4%, and 49.5% respectively. Our analysis revealed that older age (OR = 1.135, P<0.001), higher BMI (OR = 1.236, P = 0.044), and slower pace (OR = 2.305, P = 0.017) were associated with increased risk of articular cartilage disease. Furthermore, older age (OR = 1.425, P<0.001) was identified as a risk factor for meniscal lesions, while older age (OR = 1.088, P = 0.002) was bone marrow edema. Notably, no significant correlation was observed between knee joint injuries of amateur marathon athletes and gender or the monthly running distance (P>0.05).

Conclusions: The occurrence of knee injuries among amateur marathon athletes was highly prevalent, with the patellofemoral joint cartilage and posterior horn of medial meniscus being frequently affected areas. Moreover, age, BMI, running years and pace were significant risk factors of knee joint injury.

Copyright: © 2024 Shen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

MeSH terms

Adult
Athletes*
Cartilage, Articular / diagnostic imaging
Cartilage, Articular / injuries
Cartilage, Articular / pathology
Female
Humans
Knee Injuries* / diagnostic imaging
Knee Joint / diagnostic imaging
Knee Joint / pathology
Magnetic Resonance Imaging* / methods
Male
Marathon Running* / injuries
Middle Aged
Risk Factors
Running / injuries

Grants and funding

The study was supported by funding from Medical and Health Science and Technology Project of Hangzhou City (A20200360 granted to Y.Z., and 20211231Y029 granted to J.L.), Basic Public Welfare Research Program of Zhejiang Province (GF21H180014 granted to J.D.), Medical Science and Technology Project of Zhejiang Province (2020363091 granted to J.D.), and Funding for key medical discipline construction project of Hangzhou City (YDYX granted to J.D.). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, the decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.