Termomonitoramento do tendão do calcâneo durante exercício isométrico associado à fotobiomodulação: resultados preliminares

Abstract

Introduction: The Achilles tendon (AT) is involved in several functional activities such as walking, running and jumping. Due to its excessive use it can suffer wear and tear. For the rehabilitation of tendon injuries, several resources have been studied, such as isometric exercises and photobiomodulation (FBM), but the effects of these resources on AT temperature are still unknown. Objective: To evaluate the AT thermographic profile of asymptomatic individuals during the execution of an experimental protocol with isometric exercise and application of FBM. Materials and methods: It is a crossover, randomized, blinded study with a washout time of one week. The sample consisted of a group of five asymptomatic women with a mean age of 23.4±0.54 years; weight 65.42±8.11 Kg, height 1.65±0.45m, body mass index (BMI) 24.04±4.01 Kg/m2; percentage of fat = 36.16±9.21%. The AT temperature was recorded with a Flir T-360 thermographic camera in videos before, during and after the execution of the experimental protocol. For FBM, a 660nm LED device was used. To measure pain and perceived exertion, the visual analogue scale and the Borg scale were used. Descriptive statistics were performed; ANOVA with repeated measures was used to compare temperatures over the follow-up period; Paired t-test was used to compare perceived exertion and pain; and between pairs of dominant and non-dominant members alone. In all analyses, the SPSS software (20.0) was used, with a significance level of 5%. Results: The temperature of the ATs decreased for both groups over time (p<0.001), however, in the FBM group that activates the dominant AT, it showed an increase in temperature immediately after LED application (p<0.001). In the analysis of the FBM sham group, it was found that the two TCs followed the same trend of temperature decrease over time (p=0.715). According to the evaluation of means, it was observed that isometric exercise did not cause fatigue and significant pain to volunteers in the active FBM group (p=0.057). Conclusion: It is concluded that isometric exercise caused a decrease in temperature in the ATs. The LED was able to promote a significant thermal effect, but for a short period of time.