Caracterización por Ultrasound Tissue Characterization de los tendones rotulianos de jugadores de baloncesto; comparación entre profesionales versus formativos y asintomáticos versus sintomáticos

Abstract

Introduction

Conventional ultrasound helps to identify the macroscopic changes produced in the injured tendon. However, these changes do not correlate well with the symptoms or the response to treatment. The ‘characterization of tissues by ultrasound’ (UTC) evaluates the structure of the tendon in 3 dimensions and classifies it into 4 echo-types. The aim of this study was to investigate the structure of the patellar tendon in basketball players using the UTC technique, and to study the differences between professional and amateur players by comparing the dominant leg with the non-dominant one, and the asymptomatic with the asymptomatic ones.

Material and methods

The study included 40 patellar tendons (20 basketball players). The structure of the patellar tendon (proximal, medial, and distal) was quantified by means of UTC at the beginning of the pre-season. The within and between observer reliability was measured using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).

Results

The mean ages of the 10 professional players and 10 amateur players were 28.1 years (SD 4.5) and 17.6 years (SD 1.3), respectively. The thickness of the patellar tendon was greater in the professional players (P < .05), in the dominant leg (P < .05), and in symptomatic tendons (P < .05). There were no significant differences in the echo-types, except in the case of echo-type II in the proximal portion of the right patellar tendon, between professional and amateur players (P = .05). Similarly, there was a difference in echo-type III and IV of the proximal portion of the right tendon between symptomatic and asymptomatic players (P < .05). A good, high reliability was found with these techniques (ICC = .80-.99).

Conclusions

The ultrasound pattern of the patellar tendons of basketball players has been characterised using UTC. The thickness of the tendon is greater in professional players than in amateur players. It has also been observed that the symptomatic tendons are thicker than in asymptomatic ones. There were no significant differences in the UTC patterns between professional and amateur players, or between symptomatic and asymptomatic ones.