Associations Between Abnormal Ultrasound Color Doppler Measures and Tendon Pain Symptoms in Badminton Players During a Season

Abstract

It was not possible to verify any association between intratendinous flow and pain at the start of the season or at the follow-up (end of the season). Intratendinous flow at the start of the season could not predict symptomatic outcome at the end of the season. The decrease in Doppler flow during the season might suggest that intratendinous flow could be part of a physiological adaptive response to loading and that intratendinous flow as previously believed is not always a sign of pathological changes.

Can ultrasound imaging predict the development of Achilles and patellar tendinopathy? A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…In relation to the participant characteristics, all but 1 of the 17 included studies were carried out within sporting populations. Specifically, five involved volleyball,35 38 39 41 44 two involved basketball,16 36 three involved soccer players,14 42 45 one involved fencing,12 one involved badminton,46 one involved ballet dancers,10 two involved running15 43 and one involved various sporting populations 37. The remaining study16 was performed on participants from the general population referred to a sports medicine centre.…”

“…The length of the follow-up period ranged from five days to four years. The majority of studies used US as the modality of choice to investigate tendon structure, with only one study using Ultrasound Tissue Characterisation (UTC)41 In relation to the tendon structures investigated over the prospective period, nine studies investigated hypoechogenicity, thickness and vascularity,10 12 15 38–40 42–44 six investigated only hypoechogenicity and thickness,14 16 35–37 45 while the remaining two studies investigated only vascularity46 and hypoechogenicity,41 respectively. There was a large variation in the clinical measures of pain and/or function used among the included studies ranging from subjective reporting of pain, measures of function (eg, VISA scale), time absent from sport, performance measures (single leg squat and plyometric movements), as well as clinical measures such as tenderness on palpation.…”

Sonographic Evaluation of the Plantar Heel in Asymptomatic Endurance Runners

“…Although several studies have reported a correlation between neovascularization and tendon pain, 21,23,24,26 other studies have not found such a relationship. 22,25,29 No prior studies have systematically evaluated the plantar heel pad for vascularization in an asymptomatic population of distance runners. Falsetti et al 6 described intense vascularization of inflammatoryedematous lesions of the heel pad in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.…”

“…Although asymptomatic structural changes have been reported in a variety of body regions, to our knowledge, no prior investigation has systematically evaluated the plantar heel region in asymptomatic runners, a group at risk for developing heel abnormalities. [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] Consequently, the primary purpose of this investigation was to determine the prevalence and spectrum of asymptomatic sonographically determined structural changes in the plantar fascia and plantar heel pad among experienced runners without a history of heel pain. On the basis of our preliminary observations, we hypothesized that more than 50% of asymptomatic runners would have at least 1 structural abnormality in 1 heel, as defined by the following: (1) presence of vascularization on power Doppler sonography, (2) nonuniform heterogeneous echo texture of the plantar heel pad, (3) abnormal plantar heel pad thickness (uncompressed heel pad thickness <12 or > 28 mm), 15,36 (4) abnormal plantar heel pad compressibility (heel pad compressibility index <0.45 or >0.75), 15 (5) abnormal plantar fascia thickness (>4 mm), 1 and (6) abnormal plantar fascia echo texture.…”

Prevalence of morphological and mechanical stiffness alterations of mid Achilles tendons in asymptomatic marathon runners before and after a competition

“…Low pulse repetition frequencies (455 Hz) and low wall filter settings (36 Hz) were used to assess low velocity blood flow of the Achilles tendon. The CD gain was set marginally below the artefact threshold [17]. A standard 15-mm sampling box was placed on the longitudinal image with the greatest vascular density centred over the tendon.…”