Department of Biomedical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
Medical Device Innovation Center, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jul 11;7(1):5100. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-05466-y.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the dynamic changes of histopathology, biomechanical properties, echo intensity, and ultrasound features in a collagenase-induced tendinopathy model of rat Achilles tendons, and to examine the associations among biomechanical properties, echo intensity, and ultrasound features. Forty-two rats received an ultrasound-guided collagenase injection on their left Achilles tendons, and needle puncture on the right ones as the control. At four, eight, and twelve weeks post-injury, the tendons were examined via measurements of their biomechanical properties, histopathological and ultrasonographic characteristics. The injured tendons showed significantly higher histopathological scores, lower Young's modulus, and higher ultrasound feature scores than the those of control ones throughout the study period. Up to week 12, all injured tendons showed defective healing. The neovascularization score had a significant negative linear association with the failure stress and Young's modulus. Maximum normalized echo intensity had a significant positive linear association with maximum strain. Therefore, neovascularization and maximum normalized echo intensity are associated with mechanically altered tendinopathic tendons. Non-invasive ultrasound methodology, including echo intensity and ultrasound feature scores, may provide useful information about biomechanical properties of tendinopathic tendons.
本研究旨在探讨胶原酶诱导的大鼠跟腱腱病模型中组织病理学、生物力学特性、回声强度和超声特征的动态变化，并探讨生物力学特性、回声强度和超声特征之间的相关性。42 只大鼠在左侧跟腱接受超声引导下的胶原酶注射，右侧跟腱接受针穿刺作为对照。在损伤后 4、8 和 12 周，通过测量生物力学特性、组织病理学和超声特征来检查肌腱。在整个研究期间，受伤的肌腱表现出明显更高的组织病理学评分、更低的杨氏模量和更高的超声特征评分，与对照组相比。到第 12 周，所有受伤的肌腱均显示出有缺陷的愈合。新生血管评分与失效应力和杨氏模量呈显著负线性相关。最大归一化回声强度与最大应变呈显著正线性相关。因此，新生血管形成和最大归一化回声强度与力学改变的腱病肌腱有关。包括回声强度和超声特征评分在内的非侵入性超声方法可能为腱病肌腱的生物力学特性提供有用的信息。
