Evaluation of finger tendon movement by using high frequency ultrasound vector Doppler imaging

Abstract

The formation of adhesion between tendon and surrounding tissue in patient will influence tendon motion and further decrease effect of rehabilitation The displacement of tendon is the most direct information about tendon moment Therefore the ability of measuring hand tendon movement by medical instruments would provide important information for clinicians and patients to evaluate the performance of rehabilitation Ultrasound imaging can provide dynamic and real-time images In previous studies there have been numerous studies applying ultrasound imaging to measure tendon motion However because of the limitation of center frequency in traditional ultrasound previous studies only measured the tendon longitudinal displacement and neglected the transverse rotation However the twisting structure and transverse rotation make force transmission more efficient Moreover the method measuring tendon displacement: tissue Doppler imaging and speckle tracking is not enough to measure the tendon transverse rotation accurately Thus the study proposes that applying high frequency ultrasound vector Doppler imaging to estimate the hand tendon motion in longitudinal and transverse view At first we applied a phantom rotated in uniform circular motion to simulate tendon rotation and examine the accuracy of vector Doppler imaging Because tendon and compared the results at different rotational speed In human study we measured flexor tendon longitudinal displacement and transverse rotation in normal subjects in different hand motion Moreover we discussed the performance of the technique and meaning of physiology In longitudinal view we analyzed the longitudinal displacement distribution in flexor digitorum superficialis and flexor digitorum profundus tendons through the technique In transverse view we measured the direction and magnitude of tendon rotation in different joint motion However the hand structure is very complicated Moreover we observed hand tendon transverse rotation accompany deformation and translation The phenomena make that measuring the tendon more difficult However the technique still demonstrates the feasibility and potential for measuring tendon transverse rotation

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English
Supervisor	Chih-Chung Huang (Supervisor)