🤔 What characteristics help distinguish the appearance of tendinosis from a tendon tear on ultrasound❓
❗️A normal tendon appears as a firmly packed echogenic structure with a uniform, fibrillar pattern❗️
Features of tendinosis:
🔺Hypoechoic thickening of the
tendon
🔺Heterogeneous echotexture
🔺Loss of fibrillar pattern
without disruption of fibers
🔺Indistinct margins
🔺Intrasubstance cystic
degeneration
🔺Hyperemia with power
doppler from
neovascularization
💡Findings may be focal or
diffuse💡
Features of tendon tearing:
🔻Discrete defect seen in
tendon substance
🔻Sharp margins of defect
🔻Typically anechoic gap, but
may have mixed echogenicity
due to hemorrhage or debris
🔻No vascularity will be present
within defect, even if internal
echoes are present
🔻Tears may be partial
thickness or full thickness.
💡Small partial tears can be difficult to differentiate from tendinosis, but treatment is conservative for both findings💡
Watch video here