拡散光トモグラフィーによるヒト前腕筋活動の評価

Abstract

During the forearm exercise, it is generally understood that the inner muscles work for the task, and the outer muscles work to fix the joints for the efficient work of the inner muscles. For evaluation of the exercise, quantitative measurement of inner muscle activities is necessary. Electromyograph (EMG) and oxygen monitoring using continuous-wave near-infrared spectroscopy (CW-NIRS) have been used for the evaluation because both of them are the modalities of safe, portable and noninvasive measurements of muscle activities. However, these modalities can show the qualitative changes in the muscle activities in the vicinity of the skin surface. Time-resolved diffuse optical tomography (TR-DOT) can quantitatively provide tomographic images of the changes in the oxygenation state of the whole muscles. In vivo experiments of TR-DOT were performed for human forearms under handgrip exercises, and DOT images of the changes in the oxygenation state of the forearms were reconstructed using the algorithm based on the modified generalized pulsed spectrum technique. The DOT images are compared with the MR-images, and it is shown that the activities of the inner muscles of the forearms were active during the handgrip excises.