Ultrasound has risen to the forefront as one of the primary tools in tendon research, with benefits including its relatively low cost, ease of use, and high safety. Moreover, it has been shown that cine ultrasound can be used to evaluate tendon deformation by tracking the motion of anatomical landmarks during physical movement. Estimates from landmark tracking, however, are typically limited to global tissue properties, such that clinically relevant regional non-uniformities may be missed. Fortunately, advancements in ultrasound scanning have led to the development of speckle-tracking algorithms, which enable the non-invasive measurement of in vivo local deformation patterns. Despite their successes in other fields, the adaptation of speckle-tracking to tendon research has presented some unique challenges as a result of tissue anisotropy and micro-structural changes under load. With no generally accepted standards for its use, current methodological approaches vary substantially between studies and research groups. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to provide a summative review of the technical complexities and variations of speckle-tracking approaches being used, and the impact these decisions may have on measured results and their interpretation. Variations in these approaches currently being used with relevant technical aspects are discussed first ("For the technician"), followed by a discussion of the more clinical considerations ("For the clinician"). Finally, a summary table of common challenges encountered when implementing speckle-tracking is provided, with suggested recommendations for minimizing the impact of such potential sources of error.

中文翻译：

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肌腱中基于超声的斑点跟踪：对技术人员和临床医生的重要分析

超声波已成为肌腱研究的主要工具之一，它具有相对较低的成本，易用性和高安全性等优点。而且，已经表明，电影超声可以通过在物理运动过程中跟踪解剖标志的运动来评估肌腱变形。但是，来自界标跟踪的估计值通常仅限于整体组织属性，因此可能会遗漏临床上相关的区域不均匀性。幸运的是，超声扫描技术的进步导致了斑点跟踪算法的发展，该算法可以对体内局部变形模式进行无创测量。尽管他们在其他领域取得了成功，由于组织各向异性和载荷作用下的微观结构变化，斑点跟踪对肌腱研究的适应性提出了一些独特的挑战。由于没有公认的使用标准，当前的方法在研究和研究小组之间差异很大。因此，本文的目的是对所使用的斑点跟踪方法的技术复杂性和变体进行综述，并对这些决定可能对测量结果及其解释产生影响。首先讨论当前在相关技术方面使用的这些方法的变体（“对于技术人员”），然后讨论更多的临床考虑因素（“对于临床医生”）。最后，