Chen Pei-Yu, Yang Tai-Hua, Kuo Li-Chieh, Hsu Hsiu-Yun, Su Fong-Chin, Huang Chih-Chung
IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control. 2021 Aug;68(8):2716-2726. doi: 10.1109/TUFFC.2021.3077891. Epub 2021 Jul 26.
Tendon injuries lead to tendon stiffness, which impairs skeletal muscle movement. Most studies have focused on patellar or Achilles tendons by using ultrasound elastography. Only a few studies have measured the stiffness of hand tendons because their thickness is only 1-2 mm, rendering clinical ultrasound elastography unsuitable for mapping hand tendon stiffness. In this study, a high-frequency ultrasound shear elastography (HFUSE) system was proposed to map the shear wave velocity (SWV) of hand flexor tendons. A handheld vibration system that was coaxially mounted with an external vibrator on a high-frequency ultrasound (HFUS) array transducer allowed the operators to scan hand tendons freely. To quantify the performance of HFUSE, six parameters were comprehensively measured from homogeneous, two-sided, and three-sided gelatin phantom experiments: bias, precision, lateral resolution, contrast, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and accuracy. HFUSE demonstrated an excellent resolution of [Formula: see text] to distinguish the local stiffness of thin phantom (thickness: 1.2 mm) without compromising bias, precision, contrast, CNR, and accuracy, which has been noted with previous systems. Human experiments involved four patients with hand tendon injuries who underwent ≥2 months of rehabilitation. Using HFUSE, two-dimensional SWV images of flexor tendons could be clearly mapped for healthy and injured tendons, respectively. The findings demonstrate that HFUSE can be a promising tool for evaluating the elastic properties of the injured hand tendon after surgery and during rehabilitation and thus help monitor progress.
肌腱损伤会导致肌腱僵硬，进而损害骨骼肌运动。大多数研究通过超声弹性成像聚焦于髌腱或跟腱。仅有少数研究测量过手部肌腱的硬度，因为其厚度仅为1 - 2毫米，这使得临床超声弹性成像不适用于绘制手部肌腱硬度图。在本研究中，提出了一种高频超声剪切弹性成像（HFUSE）系统来绘制手部屈肌腱的剪切波速度（SWV）。一个手持振动系统与外部振动器同轴安装在高频超声（HFUS）阵列换能器上，使操作人员能够自由扫描手部肌腱。为了量化HFUSE的性能，从均匀、双侧和三边明胶模型实验中综合测量了六个参数：偏差、精度、横向分辨率、对比度、对比噪声比（CNR）和准确性。HFUSE在不影响偏差、精度、对比度、CNR和准确性的情况下，展现出了[公式：见原文]的出色分辨率，能够区分薄模型（厚度：1.2毫米）的局部硬度，而之前的系统存在这些问题。人体实验涉及四名手部肌腱损伤患者，他们接受了≥2个月的康复治疗。使用HFUSE，可以分别清晰地绘制出健康和受伤肌腱的屈肌腱二维SWV图像。研究结果表明，HFUSE有望成为评估术后及康复期间受伤手部肌腱弹性特性的工具，从而有助于监测恢复进程。
