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As a board certified radiologist, Jennifer Keilp MD sees quite a few stress fractures. Stress fractures can occur from a traumatic event, such as a fall or an accident, but can also occur from over overuse.

What is a stress fracture?

A stress fracture is a common overuse injury often seen in athletes. Usually, a fracture, or broken bone, is caused by an acute event, such as a car crash, a fall or other trauma. When this happens, the bone experiences a very high force that causes the stress fracture. A stress fracture can also occur when the forces are much lower, but happen repetitively for a long period of time; these injuries are also known as “fatigue fractures.” Stress fractures are commonly seen in athletes who run and jump on hard surfaces, such as distance runners, basketball players, and ballet dancers.

A stress fracture can occur in any bone, but is commonly seen in the foot and shin bones. They rarely occur in the upper extremity because the weight of your body is not supported by your arms as it is in your legs. Recently, for a publication, Jennifer Keilp provided photographs of a T1-weighted sagittal magnetic resonance image from an ankle injury. On the photograph provided by Jennifer Keilpphotograph provided by Jennifer Keilp, a stress fracture is noted as a linear area of low signal intensity in the calcaneus.