An Australian researcher has found a way to predict tendon injuries.
Professor Scott Wearing has been using ultrasound and imaging technology to measure the speed of sound through athletes' tendons.
Using those recordings Prof Wearing can monitor the mechanical properties of tendons to see if injuries are healing.
He says while tendons don't change much in appearance, their mechanical properties do change.
"When you pull on a tissue, you change its mechanical properties, so you change the speed of sound, which is how we measure the forces that are running through those tissues," he told AAP.
A tendon's mechanical properties also change before an injury occurs, Prof Wearing said, so the technology can also be used to predict injuries.
Queensland Science and Innovation Minister Leeanne Enoch said the research would benefit elite athletes around the world as tendon injuries were common and there was a 50 per cent chance of tendon injuries recurring.
"The ability to see a potential for an injury is a huge leap forward," she said.
However, tendon injury analysis was only the initial application of the technology, Prof Wearing said.
He's now examining whether the technology can be used to predict the onset of diabetes.
Prof Wearing said with the disease tissues changed, making them vulnerable to ulceration, which the technology may be able to record.
"We're lucky enough to try and develop a system to do just that, see if we can predict ulcers in people with diabetes," he said.
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