2015 ISAKOS Biennial Congress ePoster #2603

Relationship Between Pain in Athletes and Elasticity of Muscle-Tendon Junction

Hiroaki Kijima, MD, PhD, Akita JAPAN
Shin Yamada, MD, Kamogawa, Chiba JAPAN
Koji Nozaka, Akita JAPAN
ヒデトモ サイトウ, MD, PhD, 秋田市, 秋田県 JAPAN
Yoichi Shimada, MD, PhD, Prof., Akita, Akita JAPAN

Department of orthopedic surgery, Akita university graduate school of medicine, Akita, JAPAN

FDA Status Cleared

Summary: We used ultrasound elastography in an attempt to estimate "hardness of the body" more easily and quantitatively than conventional methods, and we then checked whether this new method was related to pain associated with disorders in athletes.

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Abstract:

Introduction

Most disorders in athletes are said to be caused by "the hardness of the body", which can be evaluated by range of motion or other various physical examinations. However, the reliability of these examinations is not particularly high, and results do not always appear directly related to the disorder in athletes. We used ultrasound elastography in an attempt to estimate "hardness of the body" more easily and quantitatively than conventional methods, and we then checked whether this new method was related to pain associated with disorders in athletes.

Methods

This study examined 157 athletes (88 men, 69 women) who were junior high school students (13-15 years olds) and were chosen as certified athletes for our prefecture. Their athletic events were swimming, football, kendo, judo, fencing, tennis, table tennis, badminton, wrestling, basketball, rugby, gymnastics, skiing and ice skating. After completing a questionnaire survey about their pain, we investigated range of motion for the shoulder, elbow, knee, and hip joints and checked joint laxity, finger floor distance, heel buttock distance, too many toes sign, and straight leg raising angle. In addition, after having confirmed the stages of development of the tibial tuberosity with ultrasonography, we measured elasticity of the quadriceps femoris muscle-tendon junction using ultrasound elastography, which quantifies elasticity by measuring shear-wave speed.

Results

Shear-wave speed of the quadriceps femoris muscle-tendon junction on athletes with pain during sports activities (5.27 +/- 1.01 m/s) was significantly higher than that on athletes without pain (4.87 +/- 0.84 m/s; P=0.0139). However, no significant differences were seen between groups in any other inspection items.

Conclusions

"Hardness of the body" was able to be evaluated in real time by measuring shear-wave speed as the index of soft tissue elasticity with ultrasound elastography. In addition, a significant relationship was found between elasticity of the muscle-tendon junction and pain during sports activities. These findings related directly to disorders in athletes may thus be detected more easily and quantitatively with ultrasound elastography than with conventional methods.