John Hunter's MSK Teaching File
Interesting MRI Cases from University of Washington Department of Radiology

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Case 59b Discussion

Patellar tendinosis or "jumper's knee" is a condition caused by chronic trauma to the entheses of the patellar tendon. Like tendinosis elsewhere, chronic degeneration secondary to repetitive microtears occurs. In this case there is probably an acute microtear with hemorrhage (the linear, high signal intensity focus). (45.485)

The patellar end of the tendon is usually involved, although the distal insertion may be affected.

The patients are usually involved in sports that require strong, repetitive contractions of the quadriceps tendon such as basketball, volleyball, cycling and sprinting.

There is a nice discussion of this entity in the following article:

Kavanaugh J, Yu JS. Too Much of a Good Thing: Overuse Injuries of the Knee. In "Update on the Knee", MRI Clinics of North America, 8:2, May 2000.

Case 60b

Knee MRI Cases