athletes – SEMS-journal

sports injury knee ligament tendon

Knieschmerzen bei Sportler:innen – Differentialdiagnosen je nach Lokalisation

Pain and discomfort in the knee joint are common reasons for consultations in daily routine. The reasons are diverse and can be of traumatic or chronic origin. Identifying the reason for knee pain may be challenging. Using a “knee-map” may help to diagnose possible pathologies. Consequently, treatment depends on the final diagnosis. When a traumatic effusion is present, a relevant intra-articular damage should be considered.

sports injury muscle sports radiology

Chronic Exertional Compartment Syndrome in Athletes: A narrative Review

Chronic exertional compartment syndrome of the lower leg accounts for approximately 75% of sports-related chronic leg pain. Nevertheless, the exact and timely recognition in athletes might pose a great challenge to sports physicians. Among a variety of possible differential diagnoses such as tenosynovitis, stress fractures, periostalgia, or popliteal artery entrapment syndrome the physician has to be able to identify the correct entity as promptly as possible.

sports injury hip & groin knee muscle sports radiology cardiology

Exercise induced Leg Pain due to Vascular Compression Syndrome

Within a sports medicine setting vascular pathologies of the legs represent a rare entity and are often associated with a significant delay of diagnosis and treatment. Nevertheless, timely detection is crucial when it comes to management of athletes.

sports medicine cardiology

Diagnosing and sports counselling of athletes with myocarditis

Myocarditis is defined as an inflammation of the heart muscle and its presentation, especially in athletes, is heterogeneous. Underlying causes include in most of the cases viruses, and less often bacteria, toxins, vasculitic diseases or pharmaceutical agents. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging is the primary imaging tool to diagnose myocarditis following laboratory test, electrocardiogram and echocardiography. In certain cases, endomyocardial biopsy is required, especially in unclear cases with reduced systolic left ventricular ejection fraction.

elite sports sports injury spine sports physiotherapy preparticipation

Back pain and core strength in elite cycling

Back pain is common among elite cyclists. Experiences of athletes and observations of coaches show that it may influence training quality and sometimes even limit performance during competition. Therefore the following study questions were investigated: 1) How many athletes of the Swiss cycling national teams suffer back pain during training or competition? 2) How good is athletes’ core strength? 3) What correlation exists between back pain and core strength? 4) Does an intensified core strength training reduce back pain? A total of 111 elite cyclists, 45 athletes (38 m, 7f; 19.6 ± 3.5y) of technical disciplines (BMX, Trial, Downhill, 4X) and 66 athletes (39 m, 27f; 19.5 ± 5.8y) of endurance disciplines (road, MTB, Cyclo-cross) all members of Swiss cycling national teams, took part in in the study.

elite sports recovery sports science

Sleep – A Game Changer in the Athletic World?

The restorative qualities of sleep are fundamentally the basis of the individual athlete’s ability to recover and perform, and to optimally be able to challenge and control the effects of exercise regimes in high performance sport. Research consistently shows that a large percentage of the population fails to obtain the recommended 7–9 hours of sleep per night [17]. Moreover, recent years’ research has found that athletes have a high prevalence of poor sleep quality [6]. Given its implications on the recovery process, sleep affects the quality of the athlete’s training and outcome of competitions.

elite sports performance sports medicine preparticipation sports science

Vitamin D levels and predictors in Swiss elite athletes – recommandation for supplementation

Background: Vitamin D concentrations corresponding to 75 nmol/L of 25(OH)D or more have been related to maintained muscle function, growth and regeneration, to optimal bone health and immunology in athletes. The objective of this study was to investigate prevalence and predictors of insufficient 25(OH)D concentrations in athletes and to come up with recommendations for our Swiss athletes. Methods: 603 competitive Swiss athletes were assessed during their annual pre-participation examination. A standardized questionnaire was used to gather information about potential predictors for 25(OH)D concentrations.

elite sports sports medicine preparticipation sports science monitoring

Iron deficiency in athletes – new guidelines for diagnosis and treatment

Background: Iron deficiency (ID), worldwide a common affection is associated with reduced performance, fatigue and increased risk for infections. Athletes are a risk-population due to a higher prevalence of restrictive diets or exercise-induced inflammation. Particularly in athletes, the diagnosis of ID based on unspecific symptomes or routine laboratory diagnostics with ferritin is not always reliable. The goal of this study was therefore to discover if a new diagnostic approach adding zinc protoporphyrin (ZnPP) or soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) in the routine assessment of ID in athletes is helpful or even necessary.

elite sports performance recovery sports and technology monitoring sports medicine cardiology

Sex-specific reaction of the cardiac autonomic nervous system to different training phases in Swiss elite runners

Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) as a measure of the cardiac autonomic nervous system activity (CANA) has the potential to tailor endurance training and may contribute to the prevention of overtraining. We aimed to investigate whether there are sex differences and sex-specific reactions of the CANA to different training periods (TPs) in Swiss elite runners. Methods: Two HRV measurements (each 5 minutes supine and 5 minutes standing) per athlete were performed, the first during preparation period (PP) and the second during competition period (CP).