110 Chapter 6 Table 1. Participant characteristics. Values are means with standard deviation (SD) unless otherwise described. Total Group (n=99) Achilles tendinopathy patients (n=49) Asymptomatic participants (n=50) Mean difference (95%CI, p-value) Age (years) 44.2 (14.5) 48.0 (13.5) 40.4 (14.5) 7.6 (2.0-13.2, p= 0.008) Height (cm) 177.3 (8.6) 178.7 (7.8) 175.9 (9.2) 2.8 (-0.6-6.2, p= 0.105) BMI (kg/m2) 25.3 (4.2) 26.6 (4.3) 23.9 (3.8) 2.7 (1.1-4.3, p= 0.001) Gender (female/ male) 48/51 21/28 27/23 p= 0.267 Physical activity level (PAL; 1-6)† 4.6 (0.9) 4.5 (0.8) 4.8 (1.0) -0.4 (-0.7-0.01, p= 0.058) Symptom duration (weeks) - 278 (375) - VISA-A score - 46.3 (18.0) - Side (Left/Right/ Both) 39/41/19 14/16/19 25/25/0 - Tendon thickness on UTC (mm; midportion) - 8.3 (2.3)‡ 5.5 (1.2) 2.8 (2.0 – 3.6, p < 0.001) Tendon thickness on UTC (mm; insertion) - 5.4 (1.4)‡ 4.3 (0.69) 1.1 (0.59 – 1.6, p < 0.001) Tendon thickness on US (mm; midportion) - 8.2 (2.5)‡ - - Tendon thickness on US (mm; insertion) - 5.8 (1.9)‡ - - ‡Midportion thickness included 25 patients with midportion AT. Insertional thickness included 24 patients with insertional AT. Abbreviations; BMI: Body Mass Index (kg/m2), VISA-A: Victorian Institute of Sports Assessment-Achilles, AT: Achilles tendinopathy, PAL: Physical Activity Likert Scale; 1-6†, 1 = Hardly any physical activity, 2 = Mostly sitting, sometimes walk, easy tasks/play, 3 = Light physical activity for about 2-4 times a week (e.g., fishing, talking, dancing), 4 = Moderate exercise 1-2 hours a week (jogging, swimming, gymnastics), 5 = Moderate exercise at least 3 hours a week (jogging, swimming, gymnastics), 6 = Hard or very hard exercise regularly and several times a week during which the physical exercise is great (jogging, rugby, football). Overall, ICC values for inter-and intra-rater reliability using UTC were classified as ‘excellent’ for both AT patients and asymptomatic participants (Table 2). In symptomatic as well as asymptomatic individuals, reliability of measuring thickness in the midportion and insertional region were respectively classified as ‘excellent’ and ‘moderate to good’. The 95% CIs of the ICC values did not overlap between the two regions, indicating a statistically significant difference in reliability of measuring Achilles tendon thickness
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