Eur Radiol (2009) 19: 144–146 DOI 10.1007/s00330-008-1112-9 MUSCULOSKELETAL

“Tenomalacia”: a new sonographic sign of tendinopathy? Abstract The purpose of this study was to assess tendon compressibility with sonography in extensor tendino-pathy and in asymptomatic extensor tendons of the elbow. Sonography of both elbows was performed in eight patients with a clinical diagnosis of unilateral lateral epicondylitis. Ten-dons were assessed for compressibil-ity by measuring their thickness before and after compression with the transducer. The same manoeuvre was performed while tendon vascularity was assessed with colour Doppler. All eight cases showed increased com-pressibility of the common extensor tendon on the painful side compared to the asymptomatic side, as well as increased vascularity with compressi-ble vessels on colour Doppler. Other signs of tendinopathy were hypoe-chogenicity (n=8), loss of fibrillar pattern (n=8), intratendinous calcifi-cations (n=1), partial tears (n=3), and enthesophytes (n=5). Increased ten-don compressibility indicative of ten-don softening or “tenomalacia ” is a new sonographic sign of common extensor tendinopathy