Shear Elastic Modulus on Patellar Tendon Captured from Supersonic Shear Imaging: Correlation with Tangent Traction Modulus Computed from Material Testing System and Test–Retest Reliability

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 8; no. 6; p. e68216
• Main Authors: Zhang, Zhi Jie, Fu, Siu Ngor
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 27.06.2013; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Animals; Computation; Correlation; Correlation analysis; Correlation coefficient; Correlation coefficients; Elastic Modulus; Elastic properties; Elasticity; Elasticity Imaging Techniques; Experiments; Female; Humans; Knee; Knee Joint - diagnostic imaging; Knee Joint - physiology; Male; Mechanical properties; Modulus of elasticity; Observer Variation; Organ Size; Patellar Ligament - diagnostic imaging; Patellar Ligament - physiology; Rehabilitation; Reproducibility of Results; Shear; Skin & tissue grafts; Swine; Tendons; Traction; Ultrasonic imaging; Viscoelasticity; Hong Kong China; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0068216

Characterization of the elastic properties of a tendon could enhance the diagnosis and treatment of tendon injuries. The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between the shear elastic modulus on the patellar tendon captured from a Supersonic Shear Imaging (SSI) and the tangent traction modulus computed from a Material testing system (MTS) on 8 fresh patellar pig tendons (Experiment I). Test-retest reliability of the shear elastic modulus captured from the SSI was established in Experiment II on 22 patellar tendons of 11 healthy human subjects using the SSI. Spearman Correlation coefficients for the shear elastic modulus and tangent traction modulus ranged from 0.82 to 1.00 (all p<0.05) on the 8 tendons. The intra and inter-operator reliabilities were 0.98 (95% CI: 0.93-0.99) and 0.97 (95% CI: 0.93-0.98) respectively. The results from this study demonstrate that the shear elastic modulus of the patellar tendon measured by the SSI is related to the tangent traction modulus quantified by the MTS. The SSI shows good intra and inter-operator repeatability. Therefore, the present study shows that SSI can be used to assess elastic properties of a tendon.