Tendinopathy Discrimination by Use of Spatial Frequency Parameters in Ultrasound B-Mode Images

Abstract

Abstract-The structural characteristics of a healthy tendon are related to the anisotropic speckle patterns observed in ultrasonic images. This speckle orientation is disrupted upon damage to the tendon structure as observed in patients with tendinopathy. Quantification of the structural appearance of tendon shows promise in creating a tool for diagnosing, prognosing, or measuring changes in tendon organization over time. The current work describes a first step taken towards this goal-classification of Achilles tendon images into tendinopathy and control categories. Eight spatial frequency parameters were extracted from regions of interest on tendon images, filtered and classified using linear discriminant analysis. Resulting algorithms had better than 80% accuracy in categorizing tendon image kernels as tendinopathy or control. Tendon images categorized wrongly provided for an interesting clinical association between incorrect classification of tendinopathy kernels as control and the symptom and clinical time history based inclusion criteria. To assess intersession reliability of image acquisition, the first 10 subjects were imaged twice during separate sessions. Test-retest of repeated measures was excellent ( = 0 996 ICC (2 1) = 0 73 with one outlier) indicating a general consistency in imaging techniques.

Ultrasonographic tissue characterisation of human Achilles tendons: quantification of tendon structure through a novel non-invasive approach

“…Recently, other researchers focused on quantifying tendon integrity 13 14. For instance, Bashford et al 13 attempted to quantify structural changes in tendon tissue by analysing the anisotropy of the speckle pattern of the ultrasonographic image.…”

“…There is growing interest in finding ways to quantify tendon integrity 13 14. In veterinary medicine, a method for computerised ultrasonographic tissue characterisation (UTC) has been developed for tendons in the horse 15.…”

Combination of hormone replacement therapy and high physical activity is associated with differences in Achilles tendon size in monozygotic female twin pairs

“…The CSAs of the tendons were outlined manually. All the analysis were done twice in a separate session by the same analyzer with a typical error and intraclass correlation between the two measurements of 0.1 and 0.99 mm for thickness, 3 and 0.96 mm 2 for CSAmid, and 3 and 0.97 mm 2 for CSAprox, respectively. The tendon CSA was also scaled (9) to body mass to the power of 2/3, but absolute values are given in the results, since the interpretation of the results was unaffected by the scaling.…”

“…The purpose was to find out whether HRT caused tendon structural organization to be different between the discordant twin sisters. The method has been described in detail previously when healthy and abnormal tendons were examined (2). Briefly, eight spatial frequency parameters were extracted from small (2 mm ϫ 2 mm) regions of interest in the ultrasound image.…”

Achillodynia - Radiological Imaging of Acute and Chronic Overuse Injuries of the Achilles Tendon

“…Quadratic regions of interest (ROIs) were split into their spatial frequency spectrums and 8 different spatial frequency parameters were extracted. Up to 84.9 % of patients with a tendinopathy were able to be correctly classified in discriminant analysis [56]. In contrast, Van Schie et al used an automated ultrasound tissue characterization (UTC) to examine four different, predefined echo patterns based on stability and distribution (1: very stable, 2: average stability, 3: highly variable, 4: low intensity with variable distribution).…”