About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Tests and diagnosis
By Mayo Clinic staff
Pain is common in athletes of all levels. It can have many causes, which can make diagnosis challenging. In fact, for many people with chronic exertional compartment syndrome, establishing the diagnosis may take many weeks to months.
Because other exercise-related problems are more common than chronic exertional compartment syndrome, your doctor may first try to determine if you have shin splints or stress fractures, for instance. As the more common problems are ruled out, your doctor will begin to focus on the less common potential causes, along with more specialized testing.
Medical history and physical exam
A diagnosis begins with an overview of your current and past medical problems. Your doctor will discuss your symptoms with you. The history of your symptoms and their pattern of occurrence may offer valuable clues in making a diagnosis.
Your doctor will also examine the areas where you experience pain, such as your arms or legs. Sometimes your doctor may notice a muscle bulge, or herniation, if you have chronic exertional compartment syndrome. Less commonly, your doctor may discover areas of swelling or tightness around a muscle. But one problem that makes diagnosing chronic exertional compartment syndrome challenging is that the physical exam is usually completely normal.
Imaging studies
Your doctor may suggest that you have imaging studies done. These studies are obtained to detect abnormalities in your bones, muscles or blood vessels. They may include X-rays, computerized tomography (CT), ultrasound and Doppler ultrasound.
In addition, some medical centers are researching the use of a specialized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test to detect chronic exertional compartment syndrome. While you're lying down in the MRI machine, you contract muscles to bring on your symptoms. The MRI can detect changes that are characteristic of chronic exertional compartment syndrome, which can be helpful in making the diagnosis. But further evaluation to measure your compartment pressures is still necessary to provide a definitive diagnosis and to determine if you would benefit from surgery.
Compartment pressure testing
A physical exam or imaging studies can't definitively point to a diagnosis of chronic exertional compartment syndrome, but they can identify or rule out other problems. If you've undergone those tests and still haven't gotten a diagnosis, your doctor may suggest measuring the pressure within your muscle compartments.
This test, often called compartment pressure measurement, is the gold standard for diagnosing chronic exertional compartment syndrome. Because it's an invasive test, involving insertion of needles into your muscles, and can be mildly painful, compartment pressure measurement usually isn't performed unless your medical history and other tests strongly suggest you may have this condition.
- Chronic exertional compartment syndrome. In: Canale ST, et al. Campbell's Operative Orthopaedics. 11th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/206761326-3/1016341470/1584/350.html#4-u1.0-B978-0-323-03329-9..50049-0--cesec4_2495. Accessed June 22, 2010.
- Choi L. Overuse injuries. In. DeLee JC, et al. DeLee and Drez's Orthopaedic Sports Medicine. 3rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2009. http://www.mdconsult.com/book/player/book.do?method=display&type=bookPage&decorator=header&eid=4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-3143-7..10014-4--s0210&displayedEid=4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-3143-7..10014-4--s0290&uniq=206761326&isbn=978-1-4160-3143-7&sid=1016341470. Accessed June 22, 2010.
- Barr KP. Compartment syndrome. In: Frontera WR, et al. Essentials of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2008. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/206761326-3/1016341470/1678/61.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-4007-1..50060-2--cesec8_953. Accessed June 22, 2010.
- Wilder RP, et al. Exertional compartment syndrome. Clinics in Sports Medicine. 2010;29:429.
- Sports injuries. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Sports_Injuries/default.asp. Accessed June 22, 2010.
- Compartment syndrome. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00204. Accessed June 22, 2010.
- Laskowski ER (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. July 8, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on