Abstract
BackgroundThe leg muscles are important for balance, posture, and movement during static and dynamic activity. Obtaining cross-sectional area measurements (CSA) of the leg muscles helps researchers understand the health and force production capability of individual leg muscles. Therefore, having an easy to use and readily available method to assess leg muscle CSA is needed. Thus, the purpose of this study was to compare the magnitude, repeatability, and validity of CSA measurements of select leg muscles from ultrasound (US) and the current gold standard, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).Methods20 healthy volunteers participated in this study. Each participant was imaged via US and MRI. The muscles of interest obtained on each participant consisted of the tibialis anterior at both 30 and 50% of the shank length, tibialis posterior at both 30 and 50% of the shank length, the flexor digitorum longus, the fibularis (peroneus) longus, and the fibularis (peroneus) brevis.ResultsStrong Pearson correlations were seen for all of the muscles when comparing US to MRI with a range from .7840 to .9676. For all measurements, standard error of the measurement ranged from .003 to 0.260 cm2. Minimum detectable difference for muscle measurements ranged from .008 cm2 for MRI fibularis longus and fibularis brevis to .693 cm2 for MRI of tibialis anterior at 30%. US minimum detectable difference ranged from .125 cm2 for the tibialis posterior muscle at 30% to .449 cm2 for the tibialis anterior muscle at 50%.ConclusionsBased on these results ultrasound is a valid method to obtain CSA of muscles of the leg when compared with MRI.
Highlights
The leg muscles are important for balance, posture, and movement during static and dynamic activity
The primary purpose of this study was to compare the magnitude, repeatability, and validity leg muscle cross-sectional area measurements (CSA) measurements acquired from US images compared with images taken via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
No muscle CSA means were significantly different between US and MRI measures of CSA with p values ranging from 0.164 to 0.990
Summary
The leg muscles are important for balance, posture, and movement during static and dynamic activity. The purpose of this study was to compare the magnitude, repeatability, and validity of CSA measurements of select leg muscles from ultrasound (US) and the current gold standard, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Imaging and analysis of muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) can give understanding of the health [1] and force production potential of a muscle [2] This can be useful for assessment of muscles that are hard to isolate during functional testing, for example in the lower leg (knee to ankle, anatomically known as the leg), where several muscles perform the same actions. There are currently limited ways to assess muscle CSA in vivo These include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography, and ultrasound imaging (US). Ultrasound imaging is a relatively low-cost alternative that is becoming readily available in the research and clinical settings [8]; validation of US compared to MRI is necessary for specific muscle groups
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