Dear all,

Here is the cream of clinically relevant tendinopathy research this month – don’t forget to look at link to abstracts here: Tendinopathy research blog April

 

References

Kulig et al. used a new method of analyzing 2D ultrasound images and found pain is associated with more degenerate tendons – similar to our findings in patellar (Malliaras et al. 2009). Shows that jumping athletes develop degeneration from an early age but tells us nothing about pain mechanisms – still could be acute/inflammatory in some

Abate et al.  – great review of links between metabolic disorders and tendinopoathy. Consider DM, HTN, cholesterol and obesity negative prognostic factors.

Gandrton and Pizzari reviewed shoulder exercises that maximally activate the rotator cuff – confirm that full can probably as good and safer than empty can. Care with push up plus due to pec minor.

Scott et al. – consensus statement from the 2012 tendinopathy conference in Vancouver – thorough and worth a read but set aside an hour

Vetrano et al. found better improvement in VISA at 6 and 12 months with PRP vs ESWT in patellar tendinopathy. The issue is exercise was commenced after shockwave whereas it should be a pain modulating adjunct to load – this is the only way it works

 Stasinopoulos et al. found in their review that there is conflicting evidence for iontophoresis (of anti-inflamms) in lateral elbow tendinopathy

Pingel et al. – excellent study by the Copenhagen group looking at acute response to load in abnormal and normal tissue samples from the same Achilles tendons – wow! TGF-beta and even collagen higher expressed and some inflammatory cytokines lower expressed in pathological tissue.

 

References

Malliaras P, Purdam C, Maffulli N et al. (2010) . Temporal sequence of greyscale ultrasound changes and their relationship with neovascularity and pain in the patellar tendon. BRIT J SPORT MED vol. 44, (13) 944-947.