Echo intensity and shear wave elastography in athletes with previous hamstring injury: A systematic review protocol

ABSTRACT

Background@#Hamstring strain injury remains persistently high in sports, highlighting the need for additional investigation of its predisposing variables. Despite hamstring injury being well investigated, there’s a lack of studies on changes in echo intensity and shear wave elastography of hamstrings among athletes with a history of injury, which could be considered modifiable risk variables.@*Objectives@#To examine echo intensity and shear wave elastography characteristics of previously injured hamstrings among athletes, assessing the differences between the injured leg and controls.@*Methods@#This systematic review will focus on studies reporting echo intensity and shear wave elastography characteristics of athletes with a history of hamstring strain injury compared to a control group. The search strategy will locate studies written in English from 1990 to 2023 using four electronic databases PubMed, EBSCO (CINAHL and Medline), Science Direct, and Web of Science. Studies reporting measures using imaging other than ultrasound and where no diagnosis of hamstring strain has been made will be excluded. Two independent reviewers will screen and critically appraise the studies using the McMasters Critical Review Form. Two reviewers will independently extract relevant data and present a descriptive synthesis. A meta-analysis will be conducted when two or more studies provide data for the same outcome measure.@*Expected Results@#This review can better understand hamstring maladaptation to injury. Utilizing echo-intensity and shear wave elastography as objective outcome measures can inform clinical practice toward developing an effective rehabilitation program for injury prevention.