| |
|
|
from the issue of August 23, 2007
|
| |
|
|
| |
Research helps gauge tendon injuries
BY DAN MOSER, IANR NEWS SERVICE
A UNL biomedical engineer is developing a new approach to measuring tendon injury that could lead to earlier detection and improved treatment.
| | EARLY DETECTION - Greg Bashford, a UNL biomedical engineer, conducts an ultrasound on a tendon. Bashford is part of a research team developing a new approach to measuring tendon injury. Photo by Brett Hampton/IANR News Service.
| |
Greg Bashford, a scientist in Biological Systems Engineering, is working with colleagues at the University of Southern California and Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln to improve early detection of tendon degeneration due to age, overuse or a systemic disease known as tendinosis. The condition can strike tendons in both the legs and arms. "The tendon pain can persist for quite a long time - weeks, months, years," said Kornelia Kulig, a biomechanics scientist at USC who's one of the partners in the research. "The pain comes and goes, and it does affect a person's lifestyle," including ability to work.
Currently, magnetic resonance imaging is used to assess potential tendon injury, but that process is expensive and unable to determine the degree and stage of injury, Bashford said. He and his colleagues set out to see if ultrasound, a more cost-effective procedure, could determine the existence of tendon injury even before there's pain and also measure its severity.
Bashford said the work builds on about a decade of research by Kulig and Judith Burnfield, director of Madonna's Movement Sciences Center.
Researchers gathered about 1,000 ultrasound images of selected tendons in the legs from 40 subjects in California and Lincoln - 10 with no known tendon injury, 10 with suspected tendon injury, 10 runners susceptible to tendon injury and 10 individuals with spinal cord injuries whose leg use is minimal.
Bashford analyzed the ultrasound images using different software approaches, some already established and some that he created. He was able to determine, with more than 80 percent accuracy, whether the subject had sustained injury to the tendon, resulting in tendinosis.
Ultrasound images of healthy tendons show tissue organized in parallel bundles, Bashford said. Images of damaged tendon show disorganized bundles with, in some cases, thicker sections of tissue.
Computer analysis was able to distinguish between normal and damaged tendons with images taken from different angles.
"If you can detect injury earlier, that allows for therapeutic interventions beyond waiting for surgical solutions," Burnfield said.
Researchers plan to continue studying the use of ultrasound.
GO TO: ISSUE OF AUGUST 23
NEWS HEADLINES FOR AUGUST 23
Big Red 'gym bum' chalks 40 years
After one last delay, Ari (finally) settles into Oldfather office
Chancellor to present State of the University
External funding increases to $172 M
UNL climbs in U.S. News top 50 list
Department opens semester with new name
Inaugural Nebraska Colloquium focused on the environment
Research helps gauge tendon injuries
732911S37164X
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|