Active clinical trials for "Tendinopathy"

In early phase tendinopathy, isometric exercises are seen as ideal to provide pain relief to patients. This approach is mainly based on a paper by Rio et al (2016), where they found that isometric exercises of a certain load magnitude and time (5 repetitions of 45 second hold at 70% of maximum) gave 100% pain relief for 45 minutes in patients with patellar tendinopathy. This then helps patients to perform their more heavy load exercises during rehabilitation, which would otherwise be too painful. Unfortunately, the study of Rio et al only consisted of 6 participants, and recent papers have contradicted the findings. In Achilles tendinopathy, plantar fasciopathy and lateral elbow tendinopathy, the pain relief was not consistently present, with "responders" and "non-responders" being found in these studies. Also, a study yet to be published (poster at conference), replicating Rio et al, also found a heterogeneous response, debunking the "one size fits all" approach that seemed to work. However, in our understanding, isometric exercises do have a crucial role in early tendinopathy management, but the way the exercise is performed, in which position, what magnitude of load, time under tension, … has an important influence. The same protocol (5 repetitions of 45 second hold at 70% of maximum) might lead to big inter-individual differences. Therefore, there might be a mechanistic reason why some patients respond, and others do not. Fortunately, the P.I. of this current trial application has recently optimized an ultrasound-based method to quantify local tendon deformation during exercises. The main purpose of this trial is therefore to evaluate the local tendon deformation pattern of patients with tendinopathy during isometric exercises and evaluate whether there is an interindividual difference in pattern between "responders" and "non-responders".

Previous studies have generally investigated patellar tendon stiffness, cross-sectional area of patellar tendon, patellar tendon length, patellar force and patellafemoral forces during decline squat. However, there is just a few study about electromyographic (EMG) activity during the eccentric squating, which is about rectus femoris (RF) recruitment. In the present study the investigators primarly aimed to quantify the activation of RF, vastus lateralis (VL), and vastus medialis obliqus (VMO) during eccentric squat on different decline angle (0, 5°, 10°, 15°, 20°). An additional purpose of our study was to compare the changes in muscle activation at various arc of knee flexion motion (degrees of 0-30, 30-60, 60-90, 0-60, 30-90, 0-90).The investigators hypothesised that the recruitment of RF, VL, and VMO during eccentric squat would differ according to decline angle and arc of motion.

The purpose of this project is to extract effusions and damaged tendons during tendon repair therapy in patients with tendon tears. Then, we would analyze tendon-related transcription factors from histology and cytology, and compare changes in tendon with ultrasound images. Helps to understand the mechanism of tendon lesions.