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

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 ICC 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 ICC 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.