Participants
knee pathologies, pain
Consecutive patients aged 18 to 35 years with the diagnosis of PT were enrolled. The main inclusion criteria were a clinical diagnosis of PT (pain on loading and palpation pain on the inferior part of the patella), which had to be confirmed by ultrasound findings (tendon structural changes or anterior-posterior thickness >6 mm in grayscale ultrasound and or increased vascularity by power Doppler), and patients with <80 of 100 points on the Victorian Institute of Sports Assessment–Patella (VISA-P) questionnaire. The main exclusion criteria were other coexisting knee pathologies and a history of joint injection therapy in the preceding 12 months. Further details about the eligibility criteria are provided in 