A pilot study on biomarkers for tendinopathy: lower levels of serum TNF-α and other cytokines in females but not males with Achilles tendinopathy

Table 8 Spearman’s rank correlation between serum IL-1β and physical activity, BMI, and symptom duration

		Achilles tendon status (grouped by gender)
		Total M	AT M	Control M	Total F	AT F	Control F
Physical Activity^a	rho	0.0018	−0.4154	0.9000	0.1152	−0.2571	0.8000
	p	0.9943	0.1397	0.0374	0.7514	0.6228	0.2000
	n	19	14	5	10	6	4
BMI^b	rho	−0.0026	−0.0107	−0.1429	−0.0091	0.0357	0.4000
	p	0.9911	0.9698	0.7872	0.9788	0.9394	0.6000
	n	21	15	6	11	7	4
Pain: symptom duration^c	rho		0.2704			−0.4383
	p		0.3497			0.3253
	n		14			7

^aMeasured in MET-hours/week, ^bmeasured in kg/m², ^cmeasured in months
Note: M male, F female, AT Achilles tendinopathy
Physical activity score was missing for 2 men and 1 woman, symptom duration was missing for 1 man with tendinopathy

ISSN: 2052-1847