Presentation
Right thigh pain 48 hours post strenuous football training.
Patient Data
Age: 14 years
Gender: Male
From the case:
Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)
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Diffuse edema in the right rectus femoris muscle and to a lesser extent the left. All other muscles are normal.
Coronal scan shows the extent of the edematous change in the right rectus femoris - the patient's football kicking leg!
Case Discussion
The diffuse muscle edema is a manifestation of exercise-induced microtrauma to muscle producing the clinical syndrome of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). This should be contrasted with the rapidly appearing transient T2 signal change seen in muscles immediately after exercise that can be used to study the patterns of muscle activation for specific activities such as football kicking.