TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schaefer, Laura
A1  - Bittmann, Frank
T1  - Mechanotendography in Achillodynia shows reduced oscillation variability of pre-loaded Achilles tendon
BT  - a pilot study
JF  - European Journal of Translational Myology (EJTM)
N2  - The present study focuses on an innovative approach in measuring the mechanical oscillations of pre-loaded Achilles tendon by using Mechanotendography (MTG) during application of a short yet powerful mechanical pressure impact. This was applied on the forefoot from the plantar side in direction of dorsiflexion, while the subject stood on the ball of the forefoot on one leg. Participants with Achilles tendinopathy (AT; n = 10) were compared to healthy controls (Con; n = 10). Five trials were performed on each side of the body. For evaluation, two intervals after the impulse began (0-100ms; 30-100ms) were cut from the MTG and pressure raw signals. The intrapersonal variability between the five trials in both intervals were evaluated using the arithmetic mean and coefficient of variation of the mean correlation (Spearman rank correlation) and the normalized averaged mean distances, respectively. The AT-group showed a significantly reduced variability in MTG compared to the Con-group (from p = 0.006 to p = 0.028 for different parameters). The 95% confidence intervals (CI) of MTG results were disjoint, whereas the 95% CIs of the pressure signals were similar (p = 0.192 to p = 0.601). We suggest from this work that the variability of mechanical tendon oscillations could be an indicative parameter of an altered Achilles tendon functionality.
KW  - Mechanotendography
KW  - mechanical tendinous oscillations
KW  - variability
KW  - impact on pre-activated Achilles tendon
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.4081/ejtm.2020.8983
SN  - 2037-7460
VL  - 30
IS  - 2
SP  - 247
EP  - 257
PB  - Unipress
CY  - Padova
ER  -