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Skeletal Radiology
Published in: Skeletal Radiology 11/2017

01-11-2017 | Technical Report

Test-retest reliability of echo intensity parameters in healthy Achilles tendons using a semi-automatic tracing procedure

Authors: Alessandro Schneebeli, Filippo Del Grande, Gabriele Vincenzo, Corrado Cescon, Marco Barbero

Published in: Skeletal Radiology | Issue 11/2017

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Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the test-retest reliability of the ultrasound echo intensity parameters on healthy Achilles tendon using a semi-automatic tracing procedure.

Materials and methods

Eighteen healthy volunteers participated. B-mode images were acquired in the transverse plane (mid-tendon; insertion) and used to analyze tendon echogenicity. Grayscale distribution of the pixels within the selected ROIs was represented as a histogram. Descriptive statistics of the grayscale distribution (mean, variance, skewness, kurtosis, and entropy) and parameters from the co-occurrence matrix (contrast, energy, and homogeneity) were calculated.

Results

Reliability of echo intensity parameters of the mid-Achilles tendon ranged from high to very high with an ICC2.k of 0.94 for echogenicity, 0.87 for variance, 0.80 for skewness, 0.72 for kurtosis, 0.89 for entropy, 0.90 for contrast, 0.91 for energy, and 0.93 for homogeneity, while for tendon insertion they ranged from moderate to high with an ICC2.k of 0.74 for echogenicity, 0.88 for variance, 0.75 for skewness, 0.55 for kurtosis, 0.87 for entropy, 0.70 for contrast, 0.77 for energy, and 0.56 for homogeneity.

Conclusion

Ultrasound echo intensity is a reliable technique to characterize the internal structure of the Achilles tendon.
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Metadata
Title
Test-retest reliability of echo intensity parameters in healthy Achilles tendons using a semi-automatic tracing procedure
Authors
Alessandro Schneebeli
Filippo Del Grande
Gabriele Vincenzo
Corrado Cescon
Marco Barbero
Publication date
01-11-2017
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
Skeletal Radiology / Issue 11/2017
Print ISSN: 0364-2348
Electronic ISSN: 1432-2161
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-017-2748-9

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