Assessment of Patellar Tendinopathy in Professional Basketball Players using Algometry

Abstract

Introduction Palpation tenderness is one of the clinical signs used in the diagnosis of patellar tendinopathy (PT). Despite the widespread use of pain pressure thresholds (PPTs) for assessment purposes, it is unknown whether other variables may influence the results of this test and its precision to discriminate between knees with and without PT. Objective To identify the discriminative accuracy of PPTs as a diagnostic test of PT in professional basketball players, used both in an isolated manner and in combination with other tests. Material and Methods An observational study with professional basketball players in which the main variable measured was the PPT, and the secondary variables were the Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment, Patellar tendon (VISA-P) questionnaire and the visual analogue scale (VAS). Age, weight and height were gathered as potential covariates. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed with the data of the area under the ROC curve (AUC), used to determine the precision of the PPT applied on its own or combined with other secondary variables and covariates. Results In total, 146 patellar tendons of 73 players were analyzed. When analyzing the differences between the PPT of healthy tendons and those with PT, differences were found between the dominant leg and the non-dominant leg. Regarding the cut-off points, the most precise discrimination of a tendon with PT was 8.8 kg/cm2 for an isolated PPT test and 14% for its combination with the VAS. Conclusions This study shows the effectiveness of combining the data from the PPT and the VAS scores. Therefore, both tests should be used for the assessment of PT in professional basketball players, as this combination increases the discriminatory accuracy. Furthermore, these tests are easily applied in clinical practice.