Muscle strength, not age, explains unique variance in echo intensity

Bali, Akash; Harmon, Kylie K.; Burton, Adam M.; Phan, David C.; Mercer, Nicholas E.; Lawless, Nicholas W.; Stock, Matt S.

doi:10.1016/j.exger.2020.111047

Cited by 22 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…EI has shown to be strongly associated with both intramuscular adiposity [ 12 , 14 ] and fibrous tissue content [ 15 , 16 ]. As such, EI has become widely adopted in the literature as an estimate of skeletal muscle quality and is used to study aging [ 23 ], muscle strength/weakness [ 24 ], and body composition [ 25 ]. To date, each of these studies have relied on the traditional EI mean approach.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of skeletal muscle disuse on distinct echo intensity bands: A retrospective analysis

et al. 2022

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Echo intensity (EI) is a novel tool for assessing muscle quality. EI has traditionally been reported as the mean of the pixel histogram, with 0 and 255 arbitrary units (A.U.) representing excellent and poor muscle quality, respectively. Recent work conducted in youth and younger and older adults suggested that analyzing specific EI bands, rather than the mean, may provide unique insights into the effectiveness of exercise and rehabilitation interventions. As our previous work showed deterioration of muscle quality after knee joint immobilization, we sought to investigate whether the increase in EI following disuse was limited to specific EI bands. Thirteen females (age = 21 yrs) underwent two weeks of left knee immobilization and ambulated via crutches. B-mode ultrasonography was utilized to obtain images of the immobilized vastus lateralis. The percentage of the total number of pixels within bands of 0–50, 51–100, 101–150, 151–200, and 201–255 A.U. was examined before and after immobilization. We also sought to determine if further subdividing the histogram into 25 A.U. bands (i.e., 0–25, 26–50, etc.) would be a more sensitive methodological approach. Immobilization resulted in a decrease in the percentage of pixels within the 0–50 A.U. band (-3.11 ± 3.98%), but an increase in the 101–150 A.U. (2.94 ± 2.64%) and 151–200 A.U. (0.93 ± 1.42%) bands. Analyses of variance on the change scores indicated that these differences were large and significant (%EI0-50 vs. %EI101-150: p < .001, d = 1.243); %EI0-50 vs. %EI151-200: p = .043, d = 0.831). The effect size for the %EI51-100 versus %EI101-150 comparison was medium/large (d = 0.762), but not statistically significant (p = .085). Further analysis of the 25 A.U. bands indicated that the percentage of pixels within the 25–50 A.U. band decreased (-2.97 ± 3.64%), whereas the 101–125 (1.62 ± 1.47%) and 126–150 A.U. (1.18 ± 1.07%) bands increased. Comparison of the 50 A.U. and 25 A.U. band methods found that 25 A.U. bands offer little additional insight. Though studies are needed to ascertain the factors that may influence specific bands, changes in EI during muscle disuse are not homogeneous across the pixel histogram. We encourage investigators to think critically about the robustness of data obtained from EI histograms, rather than simply reporting the EImean value, in muscle quality research.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of skeletal muscle disuse on distinct echo intensity bands: A retrospective analysis

et al. 2022

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“…EI is a diagnostic tool used to evaluate muscle quality that has been demonstrated across multiple measures of performance including strength (Bali et al 2020), power (Mangine et al 2014), and now aerobic ability. As the amount of research that shows the EI is an independent measure of muscle quality (Bourgeois et al 2019) is growing it is clear that EI is a useful tool.…”

Section: Advance Publication By J-stage Published Online February 26mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrasound Derived Measurements Ability to Predict Max Aerobic Performance

Sobolewski

Carpenter

Rodriguez

et al. 2021

Int. J. Sport Health Sci.

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The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between EI, CSA, and aerobic performance, and to develop a model to predict aerobic performance. Twenty aerobically trained participants had a panoramic ultrasound taken of their rectus femoris and vastus lateralis muscles on their right leg before performing a maximal aerobic cycling test. Ultrasound derived echo intensity and cross-sectional area were compared to peak oxygen consumption (VO2) and maximal power output. Pearson's product coefficients were used to determine the relationship between ultrasound measurements and aerobic performance values, while a multiple regression model was used to determine what indicators predict in maximal VO2 and max watt output. Results indicated a significant negative relationship between echo intensity (p<0.05) for max power and VO2 and a positive relationship with cross-sectional area (p<0.05) for max power and VO2. Stepwise regression revealed that muscle echo intensity, cross-sectional area, and sex were good predictors of both max Power and VO2. These findings demonstrate that higher quality muscle values (lower echo intensity) and larger muscle size have a higher aerobic performance output than smaller lower quality muscle.

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“…Previous research has reported a significant correlation in older adults between knee extension strength and corrected echo intensity for the rectus femoris but not the vastus lateralis (Yoshiko et al, 2021). Other research has shown that correcting for subcutaneous fat thickness decreased the correlation between knee extension strength and echo intensity of the quadriceps, including that of the vastus lateralis muscle (Bali et al, 2020). Therefore, when investigating the vastus lateralis, it is possible that raw echo intensity may be more strongly correlated with physical performance than corrected echo intensity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Echo intensity is indicative of a muscle's fat (Reimers et al, 1993) and fibrous tissue content (Pillen et al, 2009) and may be relevant to muscle strength in older adults. Indeed, a higher echo intensity value, which reflects poorer muscle quality (Farrow et al, 2020), has been associated with a decrease in muscle strength (Bali et al, 2020). Such a decrease may impair one's ability to generate the forces required to successfully perform important activities of daily living (i.e., walking, rising from a chair, etc.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Correcting for subcutaneous fat: Does it improve the correlation between vastus lateralis echo intensity and physical performance in older women?

Palmer

Farrow

2022

Clin Physio Funct Imaging

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Numerous studies have corrected the echo intensity of the vastus lateralis for subcutaneous fat thickness. However, it is unclear if correction for subcutaneous fat improves the correlation between vastus lateralis echo intensity and physical performance. We aimed to examine the correlations between vastus lateralis muscle morphology parameters and physical performance outcomes in older women. Twenty healthy older women (67 ± 4 years) participated in this study. Muscle cross‐sectional area, raw and corrected echo intensity and subcutaneous fat thickness were determined from ultrasound scans of the vastus lateralis. Physical performance was assessed from timed up‐and‐go and 6 min walk tests. Raw echo intensity was significantly related to timed up‐and‐go scores (r = 0.552, p = 0.012) and 6 min walk distance (r = −0.462, p = 0.040), whereas corrected echo intensity was not significantly associated with these performances (r = 0.433, p = 0.056 and r = −0.373, p = 0.105). There was a nonsignificant correlation between raw echo intensity and subcutaneous fat thickness (r = 0.353, p = 0.126). There were also nonsignificant correlations between muscle cross‐sectional area and timed up‐and‐go scores (r = −0.189, p = 0.426) and 6 min walk distance (r = 0.298, p = 0.201). The results of our study showed that raw echo intensity correlated better than corrected echo intensity with physical performance. These findings question the need to correct the echo intensity of the vastus lateralis for subcutaneous fat thickness in older adults.

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Muscle strength, not age, explains unique variance in echo intensity

Cited by 22 publications

References 41 publications

The impact of skeletal muscle disuse on distinct echo intensity bands: A retrospective analysis

The impact of skeletal muscle disuse on distinct echo intensity bands: A retrospective analysis

Ultrasound Derived Measurements Ability to Predict Max Aerobic Performance

Correcting for subcutaneous fat: Does it improve the correlation between vastus lateralis echo intensity and physical performance in older women?

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