Imaging strategies for diagnosing calcaneal and cuboid stress fractures

Stress fractures of the calcaneus and cuboid bones are not among the most common pathologies seen by the foot and ankle specialist on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, the clinician must be suspicious of these particular entities when conservative therapy has failed to alleviate the pain of a more common condition. The purpose of this article is to discuss the signs, symptoms, MRI findings, nuclear imaging characteristics, and radiographic features associated with calcaneal and cuboid stress fractures. Case studies of both conditions are also discussed within this article.