Table 7 Validity evidence grading
From: Elastography in the assessment of the Achilles tendon: a systematic review of measurement properties
Validity | Summary or pooled result | Overall rating of good measurement properties | Quality of evidence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Strain elastography | Convergent | Assessed in one article | Insufficient | / |
Correlated to VISA-A for symptomatic AT | ||||
Total sample size—240 | ||||
Assessed in one article | Insufficient | / | ||
Correlated to B mode US | ||||
Total sample size—240 | ||||
Correlated to isometric contractions | Sufficient | Moderate (downgraded for indirectness) | ||
Total sample size—114 | ||||
Discriminative | Assessed in one article | Insufficient | / | |
Age | ||||
Total sample size 100 | ||||
Gender | Sufficient | Moderate (downgraded for indirectness) | ||
Total sample size—114 | ||||
Shear wave velocity | Convergent | Correlated to VISA-A for symptomatic AT | Sufficient | High |
Total sample size—207 | ||||
Discriminative | age | Sufficient | High | |
Total sample size—702 | ||||
Assessed in one article | Insufficient | / | ||
Gender | ||||
Total sample size—652 | ||||
Tendinopathy | Sufficient | Moderate (downgraded for inconsistency) | ||
Total sample size—342 | ||||
Foot posture—increases with dorsiflexion | Sufficient | High | ||
Total sample size—370 | ||||
Assessed in one article | Insufficient | / | ||
BMI | ||||
Total sample size—50 | ||||
Shear wave modulus | Criterion | Assessed in one article | Insufficient | / |
Correlated to MRI, US, doppler flow & UTC | ||||
Total sample size—75 | ||||
Convergent | Assessed in one article | Insufficient | / | |
correlated to dispersion analysis | ||||
Total sample size—10 | ||||
Correlated to isometric contraction | Sufficient | Low (downgraded for imprecision sample size & indirectness) | ||
Total sample size—88 | ||||
cSWE | Convergent | correlation to MVIC | Sufficient | Very Low (downgraded for imprecision sample size < 100 & inconsistency & indirectness) |
Total sample size—58 | ||||
Pearson CC =  < 0.12–0.99 | ||||
Assessed in one article | Insufficient | / | ||
Correlation to shear wave modulus | ||||
Total sample size—6 | ||||