A longitudinal cohort study of adolescent elite footballers and controls investigating the development of cam morphology.
Fernquest S., Palmer A., Gimpel M., Birchall R., Broomfield J., Wedatilake T., Dijkstra H., Burchall J., Lloyd T., Pereira C., Newman S., Carr A., Glyn-Jones S.
Cam morphology describes an asphericity of the femoral head that develops during adolescence, is highly prevalent in athletes, and predisposes individuals to future osteoarthritis. However, it's aetiology remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to perform 3-year longitudinal follow-up of a control population and football club academy cohort to compare the change in hip and growth plate anatomy between athletes and controls. MRI and questionnaires were used to characterise change in hip and growth plate anatomy and quantify activity levels. 121 male academy footballers and 107 male and female controls participated at baseline. Footballers experienced significantly greater increases in femoral head asphericity (4.83 degrees (95% CI: 2.84 to 6.82), p