{
  "abstract": "Objective Labral tears are common in young adults participating in high-impact physical activity. No longitudinal studies have investigated whether labral tears expedite cartilage loss. This longitudinal study investigated the association between labral tears and cartilage loss in young adults participating in high-impact physical activity.Methods Study participants were high-impact athletes (soccer or Australian football) with and without hip and/or groin pain from the femoroacetabular impingement and hip osteoarthritis cohort study who underwent unenhanced 3T MRI at baseline and after 2–3 years. Labral tears and cartilage defects were scored semi-quantitatively. At baseline, labral tear presence (grade ≥2), subregion, number of subregions affected by labral tear, maximal labral score, labral sum score and presence of paralabral cysts were determined. A cartilage sum change score (difference between baseline and follow-up) was calculated for each hip (0–20). Negative binomial regression models were used to estimate if baseline labral tears were associated with cartilage loss, adjusting for sex, age, body mass index, alpha angle and baseline cartilage sum score.Results 173 (343 hips) participants (82% with hip and/or groin pain; 22% women) with a median age of 26 years were included. The median International Hip Outcome Tool-33 total score was 69 at baseline. Follow-up MRIs were collected at a median of 2.1 years after baseline. 150 (87%) participants were still participating in high-impact physical activity at follow-up. Weak-to-moderate strength associations were identified between cartilage sum change score and baseline anterior labral tears (adjusted incidence rate ratio (a)IRR 1.46; 95% CI 1.01 to 2.09), paralabral cysts (aIRR 1.38; 95% CI 1.02 to 1.86) and labral sum score (aIRR 1.05; 95% CI 1.00 to 1.09).Conclusion Our findings suggest that acetabular labral tears contribute to cartilage loss in young adult athletes; however, the associations observed were modest, suggesting that additional factors contribute to cartilage loss in this population. Further research is required to inform preventative strategies aimed at reducing cartilage loss in athletes with labral tears.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Joshua Heerey"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Allied Health, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Anne Smith"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Orthopaedics, Erasmus University MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands"
      ],
      "name": "Rintje Agricola"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Johanna Luitjens"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Felix Gassert"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia",
        "Discipline of Physiotherapy, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Matthew King"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Peter Lawrenson"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Mark Scholes"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Andrea Mosler"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Joanne Kemp"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Thomas Link"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA",
        "Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Richard Souza"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Michael Girdwood"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Benjamin Mentiplay"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia",
        "Discipline of Physiotherapy, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Adam Ivan Semciw"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "Kay Crossley"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Longitudinal cohort study of the association between labral pathology and cartilage loss in high-impact athletes: the FORCe study",
  "uid": "f8d44050-0ce6-51e8-89d3-fe442c34b095"
}