Lower Limb Tendinopathy Tissue Changes Assessed through Ultrasound: A Narrative Review
Eleuterio A. Sánchez Romero,
Joel Pollet,
Sebastián Martín Pérez,
José Luis Alonso Pérez,
Alberto Carlos Muñoz Fernández,
Paolo Pedersini,
Carlos Barragán Carballar,
Jorge Hugo Villafañe
Affiliations
Eleuterio A. Sánchez Romero
Musculoskeletal Pain and Motor Control Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Europea de Madrid, 28670 Madrid, Spain
Joel Pollet
IRCCS Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi, 20161 Milan, Italy
Sebastián Martín Pérez
Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Tajo, s/n, Urbanización El Bosque, 28670 Villaviciosa de Odón, Madrid, Spain
José Luis Alonso Pérez
Musculoskeletal Pain and Motor Control Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Europea de Madrid, 28670 Madrid, Spain
Alberto Carlos Muñoz Fernández
Musculoskeletal Pain and Motor Control Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Europea de Madrid, 28670 Madrid, Spain
Paolo Pedersini
IRCCS Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi, 20161 Milan, Italy
Carlos Barragán Carballar
Musculoskeletal Pain and Motor Control Research Group, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Europea de Madrid, 28670 Madrid, Spain
Jorge Hugo Villafañe
IRCCS Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi, 20161 Milan, Italy
Tendinopathy is a common disease that affects athletes, causing pain and dysfunction to the afflicted tendon. A clinical diagnose is usually combined with imaging and, among all the existing techniques, ultrasound is widely adopted. The aim of this review is to sum up the existing evidence on ultrasound as an imaging tool and guide for treatments in lower limbs tendinopathy. Using three different databases—PubMed, MEDLINE and CENTRAL—a literature search has been performed in May 2020 combining MeSH terms and free terms with Boolean operators. Authors independently selected studies, conducted quality assessment, and extracted results. Ultrasound imaging has a good reliability in the differentiation between healthy and abnormal tendon tissue, while there are difficulties in the identification of tendinopathy stages. The main parameters considered by ultrasound imaging are tendon thickness, hypoechogenicity of tendon structure and neovascularization of the tendon bound tissue. Ultrasound-guide is also used in many tendinopathy treatments and the available studies gave encouraging results, even if further studies are needed in this field.
