The text below is from the official IDOR website. The 2019 IDOR ebook can be downloadedhere.
Musculoskeletal radiology is a fast-growing subspecialty of diagnostic radiology that plays an increasingly important part in the assessment and management of patients with a wide variety of injuries throughout the world. Within this subspecialty, a new discipline has emerged – sports imaging. For IDoR 2019, we are highlighting the crucial role of imaging in the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of sports injuries, and the significance of understanding the anatomy, biomechanics and surgical treatment options.
Whether it is media reports of professional athletes awaiting imaging examinations to help determine prognosis, or the increasingly central role that imaging plays at professional and elite amateur sporting events, evidence for the pivotal role of imaging in the care of all athletes, amateur or professional, adult or paediatric, is clear. The development of ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging, in particular over the past 20 years, has resulted in the superior visualisation of tendons, ligaments, and cartilage, giving increased importance to medical imaging in the diagnosis and treatment of sports-related injuries, which as much as 70% of people will experience in their lives. Radiologists play an important role in the clinical management of top athletes as well as of people involved in sports at various levels. At least since the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta, indications for diagnostic imaging have shifted towards the onsite detection of trauma and overuse. With new technologies in ultrasound, multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the ability to document subtle findings has been pushed forward enormously. This has enabled the detection of slight stress reactions of the bones, typical patterns of tendinosis, muscle trauma, and early forms of bone marrow oedema. The ability to detect such problems and abnormalities at earlier stages, along with new insights in pathophysiology, has meant that sports imaging has moved further into the new field of prevention. Tendon ruptures, osteoarthritis, and bone fractures, to give just a few examples, can often be avoided by spotting early signs.