Invasive methods have revealed microvessels in both healthy and injured tendons, but conventional ultrasound techniques—like power Doppler and color Doppler—lack the sensitivity to capture slow flow over limited observation windows. As a result, they only detect blood flow once tendon pathology crosses a certain threshold. In this study, we show that super-resolution ultrasound can noninvasively map the microvascular architecture of tendons—without any contrast agents—opening up new avenues for early, quantitative assessment of tendon health.
