Strain elastography of injured equine Superficial Digital Flexor Tendons: a reliability study of manual measurements

Strain Elastography is an ultrasound-based technique that assesses the mechanical properties of tissues and gives a relative representation of elasticity. Early diagnosis of tendon injuries and long-term monitoring of the healing process are key to equine practice; thus, an accurate method is needed for analysing and interpreting the images obtained from injured superficial digital flexor tendons of horses. The first aim of the study was to demonstrate the intra-operator repeatability and inter-operator reproducibility of manual measurements of elastograms obtained from injured superficial digital flexor tendons of horses; the second aim was to perform a standardization of the manual measurement method by comparing it with an external software. Despite its subjectivity, manual measurements proved to be repeatable and reproducible. In addition, the results obtained with the manual method matched those obtained with the external software.