Tendinopathy

Tendinopathy refers to a disease of a tendon. More specifically, it can refer to:

• Tendinitis
• Tendinosis

Tendinitis

Tendinitis (informally also tendonitis), meaning inflammation of a tendon (the suffix "itis" means "inflammation"), is a type of tendinopathy often confused with the more common tendinosis, which has similar symptoms but requires different treatment.^[1] The term tendinitis should be reserved for tendon injuries that involve larger-scale acute injuries accompanied by inflammation. Generally tendinitis is referred to by the body part involved, such as Achilles tendinitis (affecting the Achilles tendon), or patellar tendinitis (jumper's knee, affecting the patellar tendon).

Diagnosis

Swelling in a region of inflammation or partial tear can be detected visually or by touch. Symptoms can vary from an ache or pain and stiffness to the local area of the tendon, or a burning that surrounds the whole joint around the inflamed tendon. With this condition, the pain is usually worse during and after activity, and the tendon and joint area can become stiffer the following day as swelling impinges on the movement of the tendon. Many patients report stressful situations in their life in correlation with the beginnings of pain which may contribute to the symptoms. If the symptoms of tendinitis last for several months or longer it is probably tendinosis.

Tendinosis

Tendinosis, sometimes called chronic tendinitis, tendinosus, chronic tendinopathy or chronic tendon injury, is damage to a tendon at a cellular level (the suffix "osis" implies a pathology of chronic degeneration without inflammation). It is thought to be caused by microtears in the connective tissue in and around the tendon, leading to an increase in tendon repair cells. This may lead to reduced tensile strength, thus increasing the chance of tendon rupture. Tendinosis is often misdiagnosed as tendinitis due to the limited understanding of tendinopathies by the medical community.

Diagnosis

Swelling in a region of micro damage or partial tear can be detected visually or by touch. Increased water content and disorganized collagen matrix in tendon lesions may be detected by ultrasonography or magnetic resonance imaging.

Symptoms can vary from an ache or pain and stiffness to the local area of the tendon, or a burning that surrounds the whole joint around the inflamed tendon. With this condition, the pain is usually worse during and after activity, and the tendon and joint area can become stiffer the following day as swelling impinges on the movement of the tendon. Many patients report stressful situations in their life in correlation with the beginnings of pain which may contribute to the symptoms.