Digital mapping of shoulder pain in patients with shoulder disorders: a reliability study.

Introduction: Digital body mapping can be used to document and quantify the area and location (distribution) of pain and discomfort and support assessment, monitoring, and treatment in clinical populations. This study determines the test-retest reliability of drawings detailing pain and pins and needles using digital body charts and their relationship to pain intensity and patient-reported shoulder function.

Methods: Sixty-two participants with shoulder disorder completed pain and pins and needles drawings with test-retest interval of 30 minutes.

Lower strength of the human posterior patellar tendon seems unrelated to mature collagen cross-linking and fibril morphology.

The human patellar tendon is frequently affected by tendinopathy, but the etiology of the condition is not established, although differential loading of the anterior and posterior tendon may be associated with the condition. We hypothesized that changes in fibril morphology and collagen cross-linking would parallel differences in material strength between the anterior and posterior tendon. Tendon fascicles were obtained from elective ACL surgery patients and tested micromechanically.

Glutaraldehyde cross-linking of tendon--mechanical effects at the level of the tendon fascicle and fibril.

Conclusive insight into the microscopic principles that govern the strength of tendon and related connective tissues is lacking and the importance of collagen cross-linking has not been firmly established. The combined application of whole-tissue mechanical testing and atomic force spectroscopy allowed for a detailed characterization of the effect of cross-linking in rat-tail tendon. The cross-link inducing agent glutaraldehyde augmented the tensile strength of tendon fascicles.

Corticosteroids reduce the tensile strength of isolated collagen fascicles.

Background: Overuse tendon injuries are frequent. Corticosteroid injections are commonly used as treatment, although their direct effects on the material properties of the tendon are poorly understood.

Purpose: To examine the influence of corticosteroids on the tensile strength of isolated collagen fascicles.