Reliability and methodology of quantitative assessment of harvested and unharvested patellar tendons of ACL injured athletes using ultrasound tissue characterization

Ultrasound tissue characterization (UTC) imaging has been previously used to describe the characteristics of patellar and Achilles tendons. UTC imaging compares and correlates successive ultrasonographic transverse tendon images to calculate the distribution of four color-coded echo-types that represent different tendon tissue types. However, UTC has not been used to describe the characteristics of patellar tendons after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). The aim of this cross-sectional study was to assess the intra and inter-rater reliability of the UTC in unharvested and harvested patellar tendons of patients undergoing ACLR. Intra and inter-rater reliability of both UTC da…