Disorganised patellar tendon structure remains inert despite continued exposure to high loading environments

Introduction: Ultrasound tissue characterisation (UTC) is a unique imaging modality used to investigate structural changes of the patellar tendon. Discussion: This longitudinal study demonstrates that despite adolescent athletes having the presence of areas of disorganised tendon structure, the proximal patellar tendon structure improves as seen via an increase in echotype I and decrease in echotype II. Conflict of Interest Statement: The authors of this abstract were financially supported with an Australian Government Research Training Program (PhD) scholarship and the General Electric and National Basketball Association Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Collaboration.