A Portable Ultrasound Procedure to Enable Remote Management of Tennis Leg Injuries

Ultrasound (US) technologies are widely accepted for assessing Tennis Leg injuries. However, their integration into tele-ultrasonography systems faces various challenges, including operator dependency and lack of a viable procedure to acquire clinically effective ultrasound images at home. Here, we introduce a standardized ultrasound procedure to address these challenges, ensuring the remote acquisition of images with accurate and repeatable visualization of the target lesion. The procedure includes the use of a wearable, removable skin tattoo to guarantee a correct and repeatable position of the ultrasound probe by non-expert users and an image processing method to recognize and quantify the lesion area and contrast automatically. The feasibility of this procedure was tested on a volunteer, who conducted self-acquisitions on day 0 and on day 48 after the evaluation made by an expert clinician. Results demonstrate the feasibility of standardizing ultrasound data acquisition with accurate visualizations of the target lesion, evidencing the potential of this procedure for tele-ultrasound platforms. Moreover, for the first time, we introduce two objective measurements based on area and texture analysis to detect changes in the tennis leg injuries.