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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Radiol Imaging 2021; 31(02): 350-359
DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1734224
Original Article

In Achilles Tendon Disorders, Will Sonoelastography Add to Grey-Scale Ultrasound? Using MRI as Gold Standard

Nour Mohamed Kandil
1   Musculoskeletal Imaging Unit, Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
,
Maha Ahmed Abdelkarim 
1   Musculoskeletal Imaging Unit, Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
,
Nagui Mohamed Abdelwahab
1   Musculoskeletal Imaging Unit, Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
,
Aya Mohamed Hashem 
1   Musculoskeletal Imaging Unit, Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
› Author Affiliations Funding None.
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Abstract

Background The aim of this study was to verify the findings of color-coded sonoelastography in Achilles tendon disorders against ultrasonographic and MR imaging findings, describing the elastographic patterns and correlating their diagnostic ability to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a gold standard.

Results Our study showed that sonoelastography appeared to be highly sensitive to ultrasonographically detected changes, with 100% sensitivity, 16.6% specificity, 73% positive predictive value, and 100% negative predictive value, making it a good negative test to exclude suspected tendinopathy in equivocal cases. MRI examination was used as a gold standard. Elastographic grades showed moderate agreement to those of MRI (κ = 0.44, p < 0.001), while elastography had overall sensitivity of 87.5%, 100% specificity, and 90% accuracy in differentiating normal and pathological tendons.

Conclusion We concluded that sonoelastography is a sensitive method in the diagnosis of Achilles tendon pathologies detected by ultrasound examination and it can be well correlated to MRI with high specificity for pathological tendons.

Keywords

sonoelastography - Achilles tendon - grey scale ultrasound - MRI


Publication History

Article published online:
27 July 2021

© 2021. Indian Radiological Association. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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