To test the anisotropy of human tendons in conventional B-mode ultrasound, we prospectively
performed ultrasound scans of 40 normal patella tendons and 24 patella tendons with
chronic tendinopathy in adults. We scanned all tendons in longitudinal orientation
(parallel to tendon fibers) using a linear array transducer (8.5 MHz) with beam steering
at 0°, 5°, 10°, 15° and 20°. We used ImageJ histogram analysis to process B-mode images
offline for assessing backscatter as a function of angle, known as backscatter anisotropy,
between normal tendons and the subcutaneous tissues and between normal tendons and
tendons with tendinopathy. We compared the results using the slopes of linear regression
lines drawn through the angle-dependent data, and we concluded that the tissue anisotropy
was significantly different if the 95% confidence intervals of the line slopes for
different tissues did not overlap. We observed significant differences between normal
tendons and both the adjacent subcutaneous tissues and tendons with tendinopathy.
However, the difference in the regression slopes between tendons with tendinopathy
and the adjacent subcutaneous soft tissues was not significant. It appears that changes
in anisotropic backscatter could be used to detect tendon abnormalities and in assessing
the significance of disease and the effectiveness of therapy.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 04, 2023
Accepted:
January 30,
2023
Received in revised form:
November 14,
2022
Received:
March 19,
2022
Identification
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