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Regional variation in muscle echogenicity is related to muscle thickness in young children
journal contribution
posted on 2021-10-11, 23:35 authored by Steven ObstSteven Obst, Kaysie Florance, Lee BarberQuantitative ultrasound of muscle echogenicity may be influenced by the size of the muscle and, so, corrections may be required when comparing echogenicity between populations with different muscle size. This study examined the relationship between regional muscle echogenicity and geometry in young, typically developing children (n = 49, mean ± standard deviation [SD] age = 70.8 ± 30.0 mo). Three-dimensional ultrasound was used to measure mean echo intensity (EI) and echo variation (EV), together with muscle thickness, cross-sectional area (CSA) and width, over the entire muscle length for the medial gastrocnemius (MG), rectus femoris (RF) and tibialis anterior muscles. Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) was used to assess the strength of the relationship between echogenicity and geometry using all images taken over the entire muscle length. There were moderate-strong correlations (r = 0.67–0.90) between EI and EV and thickness for each muscle, with the strongest correlations evident for the MG and RF. EI and EV were moderately correlated with muscle CSA and weakly correlated with muscle width. Normalisation of echogenicity to muscle thickness may help delineate between regions of contractile and non-contractile tissue and provide a useful measure of muscle echogenicity when comparing muscles of different cross-sectional dimensions. We recommend that researchers consider controlling for muscle size-dependent effects on echogenicity, by normalising EI and EV to muscle thickness, or including the latter as a covariate when comparing between groups.
History
Volume
47Issue
8Start Page
2467End Page
2476Number of Pages
10eISSN
1879-291XISSN
0301-5629Location
EnglandPublisher
ElsevierLanguage
engPeer Reviewed
- Yes
Open Access
- No
Acceptance Date
2021-03-23External Author Affiliations
Griffith UniversityEra Eligible
- Yes