Ultrasound Probe Pressure on the Intratendon Doppler Signal in Patellar Tendinopathy

Plain-language summary

In the sports field, patellar tendinopathy is, as a pathology, one of the main concerns for athletes, both because of its incidence and because of the difficulty involved in their recovery. At the ultrasound level, tendinopathies can be divided, depending on the presence or absence of an intratendon Doppler signal, into hypervascular or hypovascular tendinopathy. Its classification is, today and clinically speaking, merely qualitative through the observation of the explorer. The ultrasound evaluation is carried out through a probe that is placed on the patient's skin, the procedure to be followed to obtain a vascular image is merely operator-dependent, that is, the position of the probe, the pressure exerted on the skin or even ultrasound optimization parameters can drastically modify the results. Due to high pressure on the probe, the intratendon Doppler signal may be diminished in the quantitative variables of area, number of signals, pixel intensity, perimeter, solidity, perfusion index, circularity, major and minor diameter. From a certain pressure on the probe, the intratendon Doppler signal can be drastically altered. This study will try to evaluate the influence of the pressure exerted by the examiner with the probe on the quantitative variables of the intratendon Doppler signal in patellar tendinopathy. To carry out the study, a single group with patellar tendinopathy will be established. Ultrasound evaluations with Doppler mode will be performed on the tendon using different probe pressures, monitoring the applied force and recording the images obtained for later analysis.

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