Background: Tendon mechanical properties have been used to evaluate the effects of therapies on the healing of animal tendons, but these measures have not been convenient to record in vivo in humans due to their invasive nature. The aims of this study were to assess the capability of an ultrasonography technique to track the change in stiffness of the healing human patellar tendon and to assess the correlation between stiffness parameters and clinical recovery measurements.Method: Ten subjects undergoing anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with a patellar tendon autograft were recruited for the study as well as 10 healthy control subjects. The surgical tendons' mechanical properties were evaluated at 2 and 6 months after surgery with a two-scan ultrasonography technique. A paired sign-rank test was performed to compare the change in biomechanical parameters and clinical recovery measurements across time between surgical and control groups.Results: Tendon stiffness of the surgical group increased from ~71% to ~94% when compared to the stiffness of the contralateral tendons at the first visit; however, the difference was not significant (P = 0.18). Significant improvements were shown in all the clinical recovery outcomes. Poor correlation was found between the clinical recovery measurements and tendon stiffness.Conclusions: No significant change in patellar tendon stiffness with healing was detected over the 2–6 month period after surgery, suggesting the tendon stiffness recovery in humans proceeds more slowly than other clinical measures.

中文翻译：

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Pat骨腱自体移植重建前交叉韧带后的ella骨腱硬度的体内超声检查

背景：肌腱的机械性能已用于评估治疗方法对动物腱的愈合，但由于其侵入性，这些措施在人体中难以记录。这项研究的目的是评估超声技术追踪人human骨肌腱刚度变化的能力，并评估刚度参数与临床恢复测量之间的相关性。方法：招募了十名接受subjects骨腱自体移植重建前交叉韧带的受试者以及十名健康对照受试者。在手术后2个月和6个月，采用双扫描超声技术评估了肌腱的力学性能。进行成对的符号秩检验，以比较手术组和对照组之间生物力学参数的变化和临床恢复测量值。结果：与第一次就诊时对侧肌腱的刚度相比，手术组的肌腱刚度从〜71％增至〜94％。但是，差异并不显着（P= 0.18）。在所有临床恢复结果中均显示出显着改善。发现临床恢复测量结果与肌腱僵硬度之间的相关性较差。结论：在术后2-6个月内未发现healing骨肌腱僵硬程度随愈合的明显变化，这表明人的肌腱僵硬程度恢复较其他临床措施缓慢。