«El pie del taekwondista»: Exploración ecográfica a taekwondistas de la preselección nacional cubana

INTRODUCTION: The anamnesis, the physical examination and conventional radiographies provide limited information on acute, subacute and chronic injuries frequent in the tae knon do athletes. Due to its harmlessness, relative low cost and high resolution, echography is a value method of complementary imaging exploration. The aim of present paper is to describe the injuries present in articular and periarticular structures of feet and ankles of tae know doe athletes. METHODS: A cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted in 100 non-sportsman young peoples (control) and in the 20 members of tae knon do male Cuban short list. They underwent diagnostic echographic exploration of feet and ankles according to methodology of imaging laboratory from Sports Medicine Institute. Data were processed by descriptive statistic. RESULTS: In the 95% of sportsmen evaluated there were distortions in ecostructure of this anatomic area, characterized by presence of heterotopic calcifications and osteoarthritis changes in foot dorsal area, findings suggesting the presence of early degenerative alterations called by authors as "tae know do athlete foot". CONCLUSIONS: The "tae know do athlete foot" may be a new clinical-imaging entity of sports "overuse", related to direct and systemic traumata own of this sport. The degenerative changes of the intertarsal and tarsometatarsal joints of these sportsmen may to interfere with their future quality of life, thus it is recommended to deepen in this study to support better results.